Sarcomas are made up of cancers that start in the extremities with examples including cancers that start in bone, cartilage, muscle, nerves, and fat. There are nearly 100 different types and subtypes of sarcoma and our orthopedic oncology specialists are experts in the management of all types of this disease.
Cancer that starts in other parts of the body (such as the breast, prostate, lung, kidney or thyroid) can often spread to bones — which can cause pain at first — but if the cancer in the bone gets large enough, it can cause the bone to break without trauma, called a pathologic fracture. Pathologic fractures can be extremely painful and have difficulty healing without surgery and radiation therapy. In addition, they can cause significant delays in care of the overall cancer. For this reason, specialty expertise in orthopedic oncology is critical for the appropriate management of skeletal lesions from all types of cancer.
Signs and symptoms of sarcoma can include the following:
⦁ Weight loss
⦁ Bone pain
⦁ Unusual bone breaks — those without injury or from a non-serious injury
⦁ Belly pain
⦁ Feeling a lump beneath the skin that may or may not hurt
If your sarcoma treatment plan includes surgery, the type of surgery you get will depend on the type of cancer and how severe it is.
Sarcoma resection is the catch-all term that describes removal of the sarcoma, which may include:
Capital Health Cancer Center works closely with Rothman Orthopaedic Institute’s Orthopaedic Oncology team to focus on the treatment of primary cancers of the extremities and other types of cancer that spread to the skeleton. The physicians from Rothman Orthopaedics focus solely on orthopedic oncology and span across Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Rothman Orthopaedics handles the largest volume of these rare tumors in the Mid-Atlantic region. The orthopedic oncologists at Capital Health Cancer Center and Rothman Orthopaedics are national leaders in the management of these conditions. With our partnership, patients receive the highest quality of care from nationally recognized health care institutions.
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Pennington, NJ 08534
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Pennington, NJ 08534
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