Soft tissue sarcomas: etiology, epidemiology, classification

Summary. Soft tissue sarcoma is a group of relatively rare malignant tumors of various localization and histological structure, united by a common origin from mesodermal tissues. Evolving from embryonic mesenchymal cells, they eventually differentiate into the cell of transversely striated and smooth muscle, adipose tissue or fibrous. According to different authors soft tissue sarcoma constitute 15% of all malignancies in children and only 1–2.5% in adults. The purpose of this review is to conduct a thorough analysis of the existing literature on the epidemiology, etiology and classification of the soft tissue sarcoma.