As there are many kinds of sarcomas, there are also diverse treatments to cure or improve them. The main ones are surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
New treatments against cancer, based on the knowledge of its most intimate molecular mechanisms, have not yet changed the ways of treating sarcomas on the same way than other more frequent cancers, like breast of lung tumors. However, this new age of cancer treatment is also arriving to the field of sarcomas. For example, GIST, once practically untreatable with conventional chemotherapy, has today a considerably better prognosis thanks to imatinib and other molecular based drugs.
Although sarcomas have a great deal of varieties, that diversity is nothing compared to the one present from patient to patient. There are children, adults and elderly; with a reasonable health or frankly weakened; there are those that are facing their first treatment and those who had been already submitted to previous lines of treatment. To conclude, you could almost say that there are not two cases alike, so a team focused on sarcoma treatments has to put forward all its knowledge and experience in the tough task of adapting the current treatments to the particular needs of each and every patient.
There are not two cases alike, so a team focused on sarcoma treatments has to put forward all its knowledge and experience in the tough task of adapting the current treatments to the particular needs of each and every patient.
Everything must start displaying on a realistic way which is the objective of the treatment on every case. Sometimes it is about curing a disease; on others, just to diminish the chances of future relapses after a surgery. Sometimes, what has to be done is to prolong the lifetime in a situation where healing is just not possible anymore, other times all that we want is to control the symptoms the quickest way possible. If that objective is not clear, it is impossible to conclude if the treatment has achieved or not our expectatives. Any patient that wishes to actively participate on his/her treatment should not face it without asking that “What for?” to his doctor in the clearest way possible. And the latter should not start any treatment without answering to his patient with all possible sincerity.