October 23, 2008
LIVESTRONG.COM
Soft tissue sarcoma is a cancerous tumor that can easily spread to other organs and the rest of the body. Learn about the different causes, symptoms, and treatments for soft tissue sarcoma in this video.
Dr. Davis is one of San Francisco's finest house call specialist physicians and has been providing house calls and office visits to the Bay Area since 2005. His practice is built upon the philosophy that excellent customer service and excellent patient care go together. Dr. Davis works out of a charming 100-year-old Victorian home, and he believes that healing should begin when you walk in the door. While trained in modern medicine, Dr. Davis also has a deep appreciation of cultural anthropology, the natural sciences, and philosophy all of which he integrates with his medical practice. Dr. Davis received his MD from the University of Florida and completed his Family Practice residency at Lehigh Valley Family Practice. He has also lived, studied, and traveled abroad extensively, including for one year in Beijing, China, where he studied and practiced the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.
JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, M.D.: Hi! My name is Dr. Justin Davis and today I would like to describe to you sarcoma. Sarcoma is a kind of cancer. Specifically, sarcoma is a cancer that affects the soft tissues. Soft tissues are tissues such as muscle, fat, blood vessels, nerves, tendons, and even the lining called the synovial space or fluid around the bones. Now luckily, this is a very rare kind of cancer, so most people will never be affected by this. The symptoms, however, when you are affected you'll have tumor growing in these areas which can become very painfully. The most common areas to become affected by this are the limbs, about 60% of sarcomas will occur in the limbs, meaning the arms or the legs, followed by the chest and abdomen are the next most common, and finally the head and neck. Treatment, like any cancer, depends upon the severity of the cancer when it's diagnosed and where it spread to. Typically, treatment will involve a combination of therapies, of surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation. Now it used to be in the olden days that a diagnosis of sarcoma in the limb meant instant amputation of that limb but today luckily with advances of surgical techniques and the combination of therapies, this is no longer true and often a limb can be saved. Preventing this, really, because we don't know what causes any cancer, there's no prevention for it. But what's important is if you notice any kind of tumor or lump in a part of your body it's important to let a physician know about this right away. Now again, don't panic because this is a very rare condition and most lumps and bumps that you find will be perfectly harmless, but again let us decide not you.
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