Sarcoma, a rare tumor that mainly affects children and young people

On the occasion of the commemoration this Friday of National Sarcoma Day, experts have made an x-ray of this disease of which there are two large families.

On the occasion of the commemoration this Friday of National Sarcoma Day, experts have made an x-ray of this disease of which there are two large families: tumors that arise from the bone and others called soft tissue tumors that originate in muscles, fat, nerves, blood vessels, or tendons, among other parts of the body.

They can appear anywhere on the body, as explained by the medical oncologist at the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid, Ricardo Cubedo, at the event, organized by different patient associations and the pharmaceutical company Pharma Mar, although it is more common in the extremities. .

"As a general rule" it affects people much younger than most cancers, in fact, it is one of the most common in children: "when an adult has cancer it is almost certainly not a sarcoma but if a child has it , there is a good chance that it will be," Cubedo added.

In adults it is more common in those under 40 years of age but it can also appear in older people.

"The variety of sarcomas is immense, and the variety for the study is a bad fit," lamented the Puerta de Hierro expert, who has also detailed the warning signs of this type of tumor.

Thus, half of them appear as lumps: "if a lump in an adult is larger than a golf ball and in a child, larger than a marble, it is something to worry about," also if it has grown quickly.

A quarter of tumors appear painful.

The expert has stressed that "a drama" of sarcomas is that many times the first intervention is not done correctly, which in most cases affects the patient's evolution.

In this sense, he highlighted: "at the slightest chance that there is something that could remotely be a sarcoma, doctors should send it to a center where they understand sarcomas."