Soft tissue sarcomas: ESMO clinical recommendations for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up

The following recommendations apply to adult-type soft tissue sarcomas arising from limbs and superficial trunk. Recommendations on retroperitoneal sarcomas, desmoidtype fibromatosis, uterine sarcomas head and neck sarcomas and breast sarcomas are provided separately at the end of the chapter with regard to those main aspects by which they differ from more frequent soft tissue sarcomas. In general, the main principles of diagnosis and treatment may well apply to all soft tissue sarcomas, including the rarest presentations [e.g. visceral sarcomas other than gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs)], which therefore are not specifically covered. Specific histological types, however, may deserve specific approaches, not necessarily covered hereafter, given the scope of these Recommendations. Extraskeletal Ewing sarcoma as well as embryonal and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma are covered by other ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines, inasmuch as they need completely different approaches. The same applies to GIST. Kaposi’s sarcoma is excluded from this chapter.