A sarcoma is a cancerous tumor of the soft tissues that weave through the body, including the muscles, tendons, fat, blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerves, and the tissues around joints. Sarcomas most commonly form in the arm, legs, and abdomen.

Some of the most common types of sarcoma in children are:

• Ewing sarcomas are cancers that form in bone or soft tissue. They are usually diagnosed in teenagers and are more common in boys than in girls. The outlook depends upon how large the tumor is and how far it has spread.
• Rhabdomyosarcomas are malignant tumors of skeletal muscle common in children. They most often occur in the head and neck and can metastasize to other parts of the body. The most important factors affecting outcome for patients with rhabdomyosarcomas are the location and size of the tumor.  Those with smaller tumors and those with tumors in the head and neck have better outcomes than those with larger tumors and tumors in other parts of the body.
• Osteosarcoma is a cancer that begins in cells that form bone cells. It usually develops in an arm or leg. Osteosarcoma most often affects male teenagers. The outlook depends upon the stage of the cancer, whether the patient has cancer in more than one bone, the patient’s age, and whether the bones are still growing.

Symptoms of Pediatric Sarcomas

Symptoms vary depending on the type of cancer. Many of the symptoms of childhood cancers can also be symptoms of other diseases. Be sure to consult your doctor if your child has symptoms that seem unusual for him or her.

Below are symptoms that often occur with sarcoma:

• Pain, swelling, or a lump, which may feel warm or painful, and may keep getting bigger
• Unexplained bone breaks
• Unexplained fever
• Headache
• Trouble urinating or having bowel movements
• Blood in the urine
• Bleeding in the nose, throat, vagina, or rectum

Treatment Options

Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are the standard treatments for many childhood cancers. Your child may receive one or more treatments depending on the stage or grade of the cancer, your child’s general health, and other factors.

To treat sarcomas, surgery is often combined with chemotherapy and radiation. Chemotherapy with stem cell transplant may be used to treat recurrent Ewing sarcoma.

Radiation alone may be used to remove bone tumors (such as osteosarcoma).

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy consists of drugs that can stop tumors from growing by pinpointing the changes in genes that lead to cancer. Targeted therapy may be used to treat brain tumors, leukemias, and sarcomas.

Other drug therapy

Samarium (a drug that kills cells in the bone marrow, including cancerous cells) may be used to treat osteosarcoma. Treatment with samarium is usually followed by a transplant with the patient’s own stem cells, which were stored before treatment. The idea is that new blood cells grow to replace the cancerous ones.

Learn more about pediatric cancer:

• Chemotherapy for Pediatric Cancer
• Radiation Therapy for Pediatric Cancer
• Pediatric Cancer Risk Factors
• Late Effects of Pediatric Cancer Treatment