Department for the treatment of sarcomas

About the Department

Sarcoma is a malignant tumor of the connective tissue of the skeleton, muscles, tendons, ligaments, peripheral nervous system, blood vessels and adipose tissue.

The incidence of sarcomas is about 1% of the total number of malignant diseases.

Sarcoma can occur at any age in different forms, ranging from slowly developing pathologies to the most aggressive forms of the disease.

Osteosarcoma, affecting the bones, is a very rare disease and is about 0.2% of the total number of cancers occurring in childhood.

The development of muscle tissue sarcoma, or rhabdomyosarcoma, is a typical problem for pediatric patients. Sarcoma vessels, nerves, connective and fatty tissue, however, is common among adults.

Department takes care of patients of different ages and at different stages of the disease.

Department is also treating the metastases in the bones, spine and other orthopedic oncology and pathology.

The most promising and innovative treatments of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biological therapy, and those treatments that are under development are available in the Department, where we are treating sarcomas.

Attending staff:

Procedures

Sarcoma of soft tissue may develop in the limbs, internal organs, abdominal and chest walls.

Type the name of sarcoma depends directly on the tissue, where the neoplasm was localized. For instance, liposarcoma develops in fat tissue, hemangiosarcoma in blood vessels, leiomyosarcoma is developed in the smooth muscle.

Well localized tightening and hardening of soft tissue, which was noticeable just recently ( month or so) might require clinical and physical examination. Diagnosis is made by computed tomography, CT-PET, MRI. If sarcoma has not been ruled out, a more detailed diagnosis is recommended. The malignant tissue will be examined and treated in a medical facility that offers a clearly established protocol of multilateral cooperation of several Departments, specializing in the treatment of sarcomas.

At the Chaim Sheba Hospital, the orthopedic, surgery, oncology, pathology and radiology Departments are working as an ensemble that is providing a treatment of sarcomas. In the first phase of treatment, a biopsy to determine the type of tumor and the subsequent type of therapy is performed.

Treatment of sarcoma, usually require surgical intervention. Additional and finishing treatments are radiation, chemotherapy, biological therapy or treatment that are still in consideration of the clinical trials.

At the end of the complex treatment, the patient will be under the close supervision of oncology outpatient clinic.

Treatment of sarcoma at the metastasis stage - clinical studies conducted by Dr. Roni Weitzen.

Antiangiogenesis is a new method to treat sarcomas. This method is inhibiting the development of blood vessels that feed metastases. The treatment may be administered orally at home.
The preparation includes the components that have been allowed by the international organization FDA .
The treatment is done with the combination of drug metronomic Cyclophosphamide with three non-cytotoxic agents. The drug cocktail has been proven for its effect on development of blood capillaries. The drug combination was tested in clinical trail, when patients took the drug with during six years ( from 12/2003 till 10/2008) being under observation in the Oncological Institute of the Chaim Sheba Hospital. It was demonstrated that 46% of the patients responded positively to the drug, with 31% of patients metastases did not enlarged neither in the sizes nor in their numbers. More importantly, 15% of patients demonstrated a significant reduction in the size of metastases.

Thus, antiangiogenic drugs have been proven in the study as an efficient and safe therapeutic preparations.