Treatment of Soft Tissue Sarcomas

One of the major advances of the last decade concerning the treatment of patients with soft tissue sarcomas is that an increased number of patients are being discussed in multidisciplinary teams prior to the initial treatment. The present volume on soft tissue sarcomas in the series Cancer Treatment and Research reflects the multidisciplinary approach with a focus on recent developments. The availability of new histopathologic techniques has reduced the number of unclassified sarcomas and has furhter increased the importance of the histo­ pathologist in providing estimates of the prognosis of the patient as well as data for the planning of treatment strategy. Further data for this strategy will be provided by diagnostic imaging. In this field, the role of magnetic reson­ ance imaging has been further defined. Of utmost importance is the recent trend toward consensus in staging. The modification of the staging system of the American Joint Commission for Cancer Staging and End Results Report­ ing brings the possibility of a single staging system within reach in the next decade. As surgery still provides the only chance for cure, the importance of being the most sparing as possible is obvious. For this reason, radiotherapy has been applied with success. The introduction of relatively new radiation tech­ niques is therefore being observed with interest.