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Treatments for Soft Tissue Sarcoma
Treatment Options for Soft Tissue Sarcoma
Local vs. systemic treatments
Treatment for soft tissue sarcomas may be either local or systemic. Local treatments remove, destroy, or control the cancer cells in one certain area. Surgery and radiation therapy are local treatments. Systemic treatments are used to destroy or control cancer cells throughout the whole body. Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment. You may have just one treatment or a combination of treatments.
Types of treatments
Each type of treatment has a different goal.
Chemotherapy
The use of anticancer drugs to shrink or kill cancerous cells and reduce cancer spreading to other parts of the body.
The goal of chemotherapy is to use drugs to shrink and destroy sarcoma cells. Chemotherapy may be given before or after surgery. In the case of metastatic disease, chemotherapy may be used alone for treatment.
Radiation therapy
The use of high-energy radiation to kill or shrink cancer cells, tumors, and non-cancerous diseases.
Surgery
Surgery is the usual treatment for soft tissue sarcomas. The goal of surgery is to remove the whole tumor or as much of it as possible. At the same time, the goal is to preserve as much as possible of the affected body part in order to maintain normal function. The size of the tumor generally determines whether surgery alone will be used for treatment. Tumors larger than a certain size will most likely also be treated with radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy, either before or after surgery.
INTERESTED IN AN ONLINE SECOND OPINION?
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Visit our online second opinion page to learn more.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate a new medical approach, device, drug, or other treatment. As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may have access to the latest, advanced clinical trials.
Open trials refer to studies currently accepting participants. Closed trials are not currently enrolling, but may open in the future.