Learning About Sarcomas
- At 27 years old, Amy Haigh endured knee pain for six months, thinking she had hurt it at the gym, where she went five days a week. But it turned out to be a type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma.
- Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer. It usually develops in the osteoblast cells that create bone, occurs in the long bones surrounding the knee, and is also called osteogenic sarcoma.
- Sarcomas are cancers that arise from the cells that hold the body together. They can occur in muscles, nerves, bones, fat, tendons, cartilage, or other forms of connective tissues.
- There are hundreds of different kinds of sarcomas, which come from different kinds of cells. The word sarcoma refers to a large array of bone and soft tissue cancers.
The New Zealand native was eventually diagnosed with the most common type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma (which usually develops in the osteoblast cells that create bone, occurs in the long bones surrounding the knee, and is also called osteogenic sarcoma) when doctors discovered a tumor on the end of her femur.
Read MoreOnce the tumor on the end of her femur, located near her knee joint, was discovered, a biopsy in October 2022 confirmed it was cancer.
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“I was sent for a second MRI and CT scan, but a few days later I was sent for a biopsy where they put me under, cut my leg open and drilled into the bone to take a sample. It was confirmed two weeks exactly after that that I had cancer. I started chemo a week after that,” she said. “I’m glad I listened to my instincts and kept pushing for answers. I also feel lucky that I am so in tune with my body and knew that something wasn’t right.”
In January of this year, Haigh had an approximate eight-hour surgery to remove the part of the bone that was cancerous and had it replaced with a donor’s bone, which is held together with one plate and 11 screws.
Haigh, who had to stop working as an early childhood educator amid battling cancer as she had a compromised immune system, underwent three rounds of chemotherapy and a second surgery to remove the tumor.
Thankfully, she was dubbed cancer free in March 2023. Additionally, her sister created a crowdfunding page via Give A Little, titled “Amy’s Battle with Bone Cancer,” which has since raised nearly $15,000.
What Are Sarcomas?
Generally speaking, the term sarcoma describes more than 70 cancers that begin in the bones and the soft tissues, such as muscles, according to Mayo Clinic. This diverse group of diseases only makes up about 1% of tumors in adults and just over 10% of tumors in children.
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A slow-growing, painless mass is usually the main symptom of sarcomas, but symptoms can be hard to detect as soft tissue sarcomas are typically painless and bone sarcomas are sometimes mistakenly diagnosed as orthopedic injuries.
“Unfortunately, most sarcomas do not cause many of the symptoms that may be associated with other cancers,” Dr. Dale Shepard, director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute Phase I and Sarcoma Programs, previously told SurvivorNet.
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“A mass the size of a golf ball or larger and growing should be evaluated as a potential sarcoma. It's important that patients who do have symptoms are not dismissive of them,” Dr. Shepard added.
Types of Sarcoma Cancers
As mentioned before, there are many different types of sarcomas. Sarcoma types include:
- Ewing's sarcoma: a cancer that typically occurs in and around the bones, often in the arms or legs, or the bones of the pelvis. It most commonly occurs in children and young adults.
- Kaposi sarcoma: a very rare type of cancer that causes lesions on the skin, in lymph nodes, organs, and the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and throat. It typically affects people with compromised immune systems, such as those with the immune system disease HIV.
- Epithelioid sarcoma: a type of soft tissue cancer that grows slowly. It is likely to begin under the skin of areas like the finger, hand, forearm, lower part of the leg, or foot.
- Synovial sarcoma, also known as malignant synovioma: a cancer that can form in the soft tissues such as muscle or ligaments, commonly close to joints or in areas like the arm, leg, or foot.
- Osteogenic sarcoma, also known as osteosarcoma: the most common type of cancer that starts in the bones. This is the type of cancer Amy Haigh battled.
- Spindle cell sarcoma: a very rare disease, comprising as little as 2 percent of all primary bone cancer cases. It can start in the bone, often in the arms, legs, and pelvis, and usually occurs in people over 40.
- Angiosarcoma: a rare cancer that develops in the inner lining of blood vessels and lymph vessels. It can occur anywhere in the body but is most often found in the skin, breast, liver and spleen.
Carcinoma Vs. Sarcoma, Explained
What does “sarcoma” even mean? Well, it's the general term describing an array of cancers that start in the bones and in the soft tissues (that includes muscles, fat, blood vessels, tendons, nerves, and joint linings).
“Sarcomas are rare and the cause in most patients is unknown,” Dr. Vishal Gupta, site director of Radiation Oncology at The Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.
Dr. Gupta tells SurvivorNet that the main difference between a sarcoma and a carcinoma is where they originate.
“A sarcoma typically occurs in soft/connective tissues of the body such as fat, muscle, blood vessels, bones, and nerves whereas a carcinoma typically occurs in organs such as the lung, prostate and breast,” he explains.
Or as Dr. Shepard puts it, a carcinoma comes from the cells that line organs (think lung, colon, or prostate), while a sarcoma comes from the cells that otherwise make up the organ: “Sarcomas are tumors in what people are made from after the organs are removed.”
Sarcomas may be treated by surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Many patients benefit from treatment with more than one of these methods, Dr. Shepard explains.
“More than other types of cancer, the benefits of multidisciplinary care should prompt most patients to be seen by a group that specializes in treating sarcoma,” Dr. Shepard said.
“Even if only for a second opinion or to develop a treatment plan, multidisciplinary care is crucial. As an example, patients may benefit from surgical resection or radiation therapy even with metastatic disease. Patients may benefit from the addition of chemotherapy to radiation therapy prior to surgery to resect a sarcoma.”
Who Gets Diagnosed With Sarcoma?
Most sarcomas don't have a clear cause, Dr. Shepard explains. “They usually develop without a particular exposure or pre-existing condition,” he says. "”t is common that I see patients with a sarcoma who have previously been healthy no prior medical problems and leading a healthy lifestyle. [It's] not from something they did or something they didn't do.”
That said, he notes, there are a few sarcomas that are associated with exposures or genetic conditions. Patients with HIV may develop Kaposi sarcoma. Prior radiation therapy is a risk factor for angiosarcoma. A genetic condition, neurofibromatosis 1, is associated with a type of sarcoma called a peripheral nerve sheath tumor.
“Patients usually wonder why they have their tumor,” Dr. Shepard notes. “It is important to address this with them.”
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Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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