Pathology of soft tissue and muscle tumors

Question 1

What are soft tissue tumors

Answer 1

• Neoplasms that arise from certain extraskeletal mesodermal tissues of the body.
• Includes skeletal and smooth muscles, fat, fibrous tissue, blood vessels and lymphatics.
• Very uncommon. Benign 100x more common than malignant.

Question 2

General principles of soft tissue tumors?

Answer 2

Superficial tumors tend to be benign, and deep lesions are more often malignant.

Large tumors are more often malignant.

Rapidly growing tumors are more likely malignant than tumors that develop slowly.

Calcifications may exist in both benign and malignant tumors.

Benign tumors are relatively avascular, whereas malignant tumors are hypervascular.