Soft tissue sarcoma

A sarcoma (from the Greek 'sarx' meaning "flesh") is a cancer of the connective tissue^[1][2] (bone, cartilage, fat) resulting in mesoderm proliferation.^[3]

This is in contrast to carcinomas, which are of epithelial origin (breast, colon, pancreas, and others). However, due to an evolving understanding of tissue origin, the term "sarcoma" is sometimes applied to tumors now known to arise from epithelial tissue.^[4] The term soft tissue sarcoma is used to describe tumors of soft tissue,^[5] which includes elements that are in connective tissue, but not derived from it (such as muscles and blood vessels)