Day 4 of Sarcoma Awareness Month

So yesterday was a great day but today is better!! I was diagnosed in September 2010. Just before my 25th birthday. As many may not know, the survival rate for young adults has not changed in the last 25 years. Unfortunately, due to the fact that many young adults don't have any reason to see a doctor, cancer is not found in a early stage. Many young adults have higher survival rates then those who are in an adult diagnosed with this disease.

However, many of the statistics give a 80+% survival rate on young black adults with soft tissue sarcomas. So that's the most important point. For more information about general information about mortality rates and survival rates, I think you should check out the following websites:


www.cancer.gov/aboutnci/servingpeople/aya-snapshot.pdf
www.seer.cancer.gov/publications/aya/
www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/aya 

Along with this, I would also like to show and explain more about the sarcoma subtypes:
Examples of soft tissue sarcomas and the type of tissue in which they begin include the following (The type I have is under Blood and lymph vessels and highlighted in yellow):

• Fibrous tissue (tissue that holds bones, muscles, and organs in place)—fibrosarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma
• Fatty tissue—liposarcoma
• Smooth muscle (e.g., uterus)—leiomyosarcoma
• Skeletal muscle—rhabdomyosarcoma
• Blood and lymph vessels—epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, angiosarcoma, lymphangiosarcoma, Kaposi sarcoma
• Perivascular tissue (near or around blood vessels)—glomangiosarcoma, malignant hemangiopericytoma
• Synovial tissue (tissue that lines joints, tendon sheaths, and fluid-filled sacs between tendons and bones)—synovial sarcoma
• Peripheral nerves—malignant granular cell tumor, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (also called malignant schwannoma or neurofibrosarcoma)
• Mesenchymal cells (cells that develop into connective tissue, blood vessels, and lymphatic tissue)—gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), malignant mesenchymoma

(This information is provided by the National Cancer Institute)


Always remember EVERYONE LOOKS GOOD IN YELLOW!! ;-)