Soft-Tissue sarcomas: Diagnosis and treatment from the plastic reconstructive surgeon perspective

Abstract

Advances in multimodal therapy and limb-salvage surgery (LSS) have led to improvements in the quality of life of sarcoma patients. Despite all the advances, controversy continues in the diagnosis and treatment of soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs). Significant structural and functional losses occur in the extremity due to both wide resections and radiotherapy combined with surgery. This situation necessitates the restructuring of extremity functions. The opinion of plastic surgery must be obtained, when planning LSS, before excision of high-volume tumors, to decide postresectional reconstruction and to manage the postsurgical complications. The need for plastic surgery in the multidisciplinary approach to STSs is increasing. The information presented in this article has been compiled from the articles obtained by searching the titles of “soft tissue sarcomas, reconstruction, diagnosis, current treatment” in Google Scholar and PubMed databases, international books written in the field, and the experiences of the authors.