Onkológia 6/2008

EPIDEMIOLOGIC ASPECTS OF BONE AND SOFT TISSUE SARCOMAS

Sarcomas arising in the bone and soft tissue are rare and present very heterogenic group accounting only for 1,5 % of adult and 15 % of childhood malignant neoplasms. The main sarcomas of bone and cartilage are osteosarcomas, chondrosarcomas and Ewing’s sarcomas. Sarcomas arising from soft tissue are classified in 10 main groups and about 50 types. Most frequent is fibrous histiocytoma, liposarcoma, leiomyosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. Rare occurrence and detailed classification limited epidemiological studies to the basic descriptive indicators and possible etiological factors. The interest for soft tissue sarcomas increased recently with the rising occurrence of Kaposi sarcomas and gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Keywords: sarcomas of bone, soft tissues, epidemiology