Understanding Sarcoma: Exploring a Case Study with an Overseas Patient with dermatofibrosarcoma.

Understanding Sarcomas: Sarcomas are rare cancers that can form in bones, soft tissues, blood vessels, muscles, and other soft tissues in the body. They can affect 1% of adults and 15% of children globally.

Symptoms:

• Sarcomas appear as a lump or swelling with or without pain.

• Bone pain in the case of bone sarcoma.

• Difficulty in breathing or chronic cough in the case of lung sarcoma.

• Organ-specific symptoms involved.

Diagnosis:

• After a physical examination for lumps or swellings in the body, a doctor may advise imaging studies like X-Rays, CT scan, MRI, or PET-CT for screening and staging of sarcomas.

• Biopsy: Plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of sarcomas. A pathologist analyzes the biopsy sample microscopically for malignant cells and performs immunohistochemistry for specific markers.

Management:

• Wide Surgical Excision: The treatment of choice in sarcomas without metastasis to lymph nodes or distant organs.

• Metastasis: It is a slow-growing tumor, but it can metastasize in 40 to 50% of individuals.

• Micrometastasis: Describes smaller groups of cancer cells with mitotic activity that spread to other body parts from the primary tumor. These groups are too small to be detected by standard screening and diagnostic tests. Micrometastasis can happen in a wide range of cancers, especially in aggressive solid tumors.

• Chemotherapy: May be used before or after surgery. Surgery is not advocated in patients with metastasis to distant organs.

• Radiotherapy: Used in the case of large sarcomas to shrink their size.

Exploring a Case Study with an Overseas Patient: A 70-year-old male living in Canada consulted us via online consultation. He is a known case of HTN, T2DM, CKD, Dyslipidemia, and GERD on regular medications Amlodipine, Metformin, Glimepiride, Ramipril, and Pantoprazole. He was recently diagnosed with dermatofibrosarcoma over his right gluteal region and was treated well there with wide excision.

Image 1. Showing healed surgical scar of wide excision done for dermatofibrosarcoma a type of Sarcoma.

In view of co-morbidities, they consulted us for further Ayurvedic treatment to avoid recurrence or micrometastasis.

We started personalized Ayurvedic adjunctive treatment, and it improved his overall feeling of well-being.

Sharing previous treatment details, the identity of the patient and hospital is hidden due to privacy concerns.

Image 2. Older treatment details of same patient with dermatofibrosarcoma.

Image 3. Past medical history of patient with dermatofibrosarcoma.

Image 4. Surgical pathology report of patient with diagnosis of dermatofibrosarcoma along with immunohistochemistry.