Saturday, April 2, 2011

Types of Uterine Sarcoma

It is a rare type of cancer that originates in the tissues of the uterus, the small hollow organs in a woman’s pelvis in which a fetus is developed. Usually, it affects those women who are in menopause stage.

Types
Two main types of uterine sarcoma are:

  1. Uterine leiomyosarcoma
  2. Endometrial stromal sarcoma

Uterine leiomyosarcoma
Although this type  is rare but malignant and really unpredictable.  About 5 to 10 % of soft tissue sarcoma are uterine leiomyosarcoma.  This form of cancer is resistant and in general condition does not get treated by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. However, surgery is an effective solution to get rid of this cancer, as it shows good results. So far, surgery has been the most useful treatment option for leiomyosarcoma management. In case, when tumor is not clear or if some cells are left inside, then radiation or a chemotherapy produces desired outcome. This cancer is resistant to both the therapies, but each case differs from the other and can respond well to these treatment methods. A woman once affected with this cancer must consult a sarcoma oncologist as soon as possible to avoid any further complications.

Endometrial stromal sarcoma
This a tumor that forms in stroma, the connective tissues of the endometrium and not in the glands. Three stages of endometrial stromal tumors are:

  • Endometrial stromal nodule
  • Low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma
  • Undifferentiated uterine sarcoma

An endometrial stromal nodule is circumscribed proliferation of enodmetrial stromal cells. Apparently these cell seem to be identical to normal stromal cells but these can be differentiated from the normal ones by the fact that there is lack of infiltration in them.

Low-grade enometrial stromal sarcoma has cells that resemble normal proliferative phase endometrium, but there is vascular invasion or infiltration.

Undifferentiated stromal sarcoma is an aggressive form of uterine sarcoma and is different from normal endometrial stroma. This type includes lymphoma, leukemia, carcinosarcoma and high-grade carcinoma.

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