Sarcoma
Diagnosis

The first step is to see your doctor for a physical exam, which will explore the origin of symptoms, possible risk factors and family medical history. Next, your doctor may order a series of tests, including:

• Biopsy. If one of your symptoms is a lump under the skin, your doctor will likely perform a biopsy to collect a tissue sample, which can then be examined in the lab.
• X-ray. Useful for detecting bone sarcomas, X-rays use a small amount of radiation to visualize structures inside the body.
• Bone scan. To produce a bone scan, a radioactive tracer that can be detected by a camera is injected into the bloodstream. This study can collect more detailed information about bone diseases, including sarcoma.
• CT scan. To take images, a thin X-ray beam rotates around the chest area; then a computer program processes the data to construct a three-dimensional, cross-sectional image.
• PET scan. This highly sensitive technique uses a radioactive tracer to collect images of body tissues.
• MRI scan. A powerful magnet linked to a computer is used to create detailed images of various regions of the body.

Staging

If the diagnosis is sarcoma, your doctor will want to determine the stage or extent of the disease. Staging is a careful process to learn whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to which parts of the body. Knowing the stage helps doctors plan treatments. Descriptions of the four stages of sarcoma are listed below:

• Stage I. The cancer is low-grade (not considered aggressive) and has not spread outside the bone or tissue where it was found.
• Stage II. The cancer is medium- or high-grade (more aggressive than stage I) and has not spread outside the bone or tissue where it was found.
• Stage III. The cancer is high-grade and has begun spreading to lymph nodes or other parts of the bone or tissue of origin.
• Stage IV. The cancer has spread to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or lymph nodes. This may be low-, medium- or high-grade cancer.