Sarcoma

Our Doctors and Providers

Sarcoma is cancer of soft tissue (such as muscle), connective tissue (such as tendon or cartilage), and bone. It is important to get a diagnosis for the specific sarcoma affecting you by doctors specializing in cancer (Oncologists). Sarcomas can affect children and adults, but are most common in older adults.

Sarcoma: What You Need to Know

Teamwork

Sarcoma is managed best by a group of specialists in Musculoskeletal Oncology, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Adult Hematology and Oncology and Radiation Oncology and Pathology. At Fletcher Allen, our physicians, nurses and support staff work together as a team, providing expert care.

Personalized Care

Every patient is unique. You and your family will feel the advantages of personalized, patient-centered care. We optimize your treatment to your specific sarcoma diagnosis.

Experienced, Trusted Expertise

The physicians on staff are board-certified orthopedic surgeons and have additional specialty training in adult and pediatric oncology. Our doctors are University of Vermont College of Medicine faculty members and are involved in research, and in the education of the College of Medicine students and orthopedic surgery residents.

What is Sarcoma?

Sarcoma is also called Musculoskeletal Oncology. That means it is cancer that starts in the muscles, tendons or cartilage, or bones. Typically sarcoma is split into families of bone cancer and soft tissue sarcoma.

At Fletcher Allen, our Musculoskeletal Oncology program goes beyond the strict definition of sarcomas to diagnose and treat blood cell cancers (also called multiple myeloma or lymphomas of bone) as well, which is cancer that starts in the bone marrow. Bone marrow is the substance in the center of your bones that makes red blood cells.

Our sarcoma care also includes cancer that started somewhere else in the body and spread (metastasized) to the bone (also called metastatic carcinomas to bone).

The exact cause of sarcoma is unclear, but several factors can increase your risk of developing it, including:

Age: the risk most often increases as you age, but there are several specific sarcomas, such as Ewing's sarcoma, which happen more commonly in children and young adults
Inherited genetic conditions: certain rare genetic disorders passed through families can increase the risk developing sarcoma
Paget's disease: this precancerous condition that affects older adults increases the risk of bone cancer
Chemical exposure: Exposure to certain chemicals, such as vinyl chloride and dioxin, can increase sarcoma risk
Radiation exposure: Previous radiation treatment for other cancers can increase sarcoma risk.

Common Conditions Treated

Adamantinoma	Hemangioma of bone	Neurofibromatosis
Aneurysmal bone cyst	Hemangiopericytoma	Neurosarcoma
Angiosarcoma	Hereditary Multiple Exostosis	Non Ossifying Fibroma
Bone Tumor	Histiocytosis X	Ollier’s Disease
Chondroblastoma	Intraosseous ganglion cyst	Osteoblastoma
Chondroma, periosteal	Leiomyosarcoma	Osteochondroma
Chondromyxoid fibroma	Lipoma	Osteofibrous dysplasia
Chondrosarcoma	Lipoma, atypical	Osteogenesis imperfecta
Chordoma	Liposarcoma	Osteoid osteoma
Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans	Lymphoma of bone	Osteomyelitis
Desmoid tumor, periosteal	Malignant fibrous histiocytosis (MFH), or Sarcoma not otherwise specified (NOS)	Osteopoikilosis (multiple enostosis)
Desmoplastic fibroma	Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor	Osteosarcoma
Enchondroma	Mazabraud Syndrome	Paget's disease
Extra-abdominal desmoid tumor	McCune – Albright Syndrome	Pigmented vilonodular synovitis (PVNS)
Eosinophilic granuloma	Maffucci’s Disease	Primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET/Ewing's)
Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma	Marfan's Syndrome	Rhabdomyosarcoma
Epithelioid sarcoma	Melorheostosis	Rhabdomyosarcoma, alveolar
Ewing's sarcoma	Metastatic bone disease	Rhabdomyosarcoma, pleomorphic
Exostosis	Multiple myeloma (plasmacytoma)	Soft Tissue Tumors
Fibroma	Multiple Hereditary Exostosis	Sarcoma of soft parts
Fibromatosis	Myositis ossificans	Synovial chondromatosis
Giant-cell tumor of bone	Myxoma	Synovial sarcoma
Giant-cell tumor of tendon sheath	Neuroblastoma, metastatic	Unicameral bone cyst
Hemangioma	Neurofibroma	Von Recklinghausen's disease (neurofibromatosis)

Sarcoma Diagnosis and Treatment

The treatment that is right for you will depend upon your exact sarcoma diagnosis. At Fletcher Allen, we use specialized techniques to diagnose sarcomas.

Our knowledgeable physicians treat sarcomas on a regular basis. Should your sarcoma require surgery, you can rest assured in the knowledge that our orthopedic surgeons are highly trained in performing advanced surgical procedures for sarcomas.