[Pathological evaluation of soft tissue sarcoma for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment]

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare and heterogeneous group of tumors which differ widely in their clinicopathological features, and have a wide spectrum of clinical course, ranging from indolent tumors with a good prognosis to highly aggressive tumors with a poor prognosis. The diagnostic process of STS is complex and may necessitate an array of ancillary studies, including immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy and molecular genetic methods. Although an ongoing and improved histopathological definition of individual tumor types has been established, there still remains a subset of mesenchymal tumors which are currently not readily classifiable. This review summarizes our experience and that of others in the approach to the pathological evaluation of STS, and especially emphasizes the need to use emerging molecular techniques that can provide important clues for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of STS.