Malignant Soft Tissue Tumors - Sarcomas

Malignant tumors of the soft tissues are rare. However, as a principle, all diverse kinds and entities of those tumors can - occasionally - also occur dermal or so superficial that the dermatologist may be involved in the diagnosis and even the treatment. Moreover, due to the nature of our subject, the dermatologist may become involved in patients' management with "unclear swellings" of tissues. So, the basic principles of managing this situation should be well known, because the dermatologist may contribute to shortening of the pre-diagnostic interval, which is too long all too often. Finally, there are entities, which are relevant to the dermatologist due to their frequency of occurrence (dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, leimyosarcoma, atypical fibroxanthoma), or entities rare, but highly aggressive and easily mixed up with other clinical conditions (angiosarcoma, epithelioid sarcoma), and there are pitfalls to be aware of such as the occurrence of a neurofibrosarcoma in the background of a long-lasting neurofibromatosis or the risk of unreflected overtreatment, e.g. in the case of nodular fasciitis, a pseudosarcoma. These aspects will be considered in this article according to their clinical significance.