Rare soft tissue tumors form in the body’s soft tissues such as muscle, fat, tendons, ligaments, lymph and blood vessels, nerves, or other tissue that connects and supports the body. These cancers can develop anywhere but are found mostly in the arms, legs, chest, and abdomen. They can be called by different names depending on the tissue where they start and what they look like under the microscope.
Some of the rare soft tissue tumors that affect children, teens, and young adults are:
- Alveolar soft part sarcoma
- Clear cell sarcoma
- Desmoid tumor
- Desmoplastic small round cell tumors
- Extra-cranial rhabdoid tumor
- Infantile myofibromatosis
- Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor
- Leiomyosarcoma
- Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor
- Myxoid/round cell liposarcoma
- NUT carcinoma
- Schwannoma
- Sclerosing Epithelioid Fibrosarcoma (SEF)
- Synovial sarcoma
Soft tissue makes up many parts of the body and can form different kinds of tumors
Credit: National Cancer Institute