Carcinosarcoma is a rare and aggressive cancer that involves both epithelial and connective tissue malignancies. It can occur in various organs, including the breast, lungs, and female reproductive system, and has a poor prognosis. Treatment options are limited, and the success rate varies depending on the type of sarcoma present.
A carcinosarcoma is a cancer involving the epithelial cells that line the body’s organs and connective tissues, such as cartilage or bone. This combination of carcinoma and sarcoma is quite rare but aggressive, suggesting a poor prognosis in many cases. A small percentage of breast cancers meet the diagnostic criteria for carcinosarcoma and have occasionally been found to cause lung malignancies. Its most prevalent location is in the uterus and nearby reproductive tissues, where it accounts for up to five percent of reported malignancies.
Both epithelial and connective tissue must be cancerous for a diagnosis of carcinosarcoma, which is a mixed cell line neoplasm. Carcinomas are cancers of the epithelial cells that cover the skin and many organs in the body and are quite common. Sarcomas are rare, malignant tumors of connective tissues including bone and cartilage and occur less frequently among the cancer cases reported each year. In carcinosarcoma, both types of malignancy are present in the same organ or tissue. The older name for this disease, malignant mixed mesodermal tumor, reflects the fact that the connective tissue originates from the embryonic mesoderm.
In the breast, carcinosarcomas are the rarest type of cancer. While carcinomas commonly cause breast cancer, sarcomas occur in less than 100 percent of cases. Soft tissue sarcomas in breast fat are similar to mixed cell line tumors, but are not the same in their origin or aggressiveness.
There is a significant risk of the cancer spreading from the breast to adjacent lung tissue. Treatment by surgical removal of the malignant tissue has had mixed results. It is important to note that the number of cases available for statistical analysis of prognosis and treatment success has been reduced.
Lung carcinosarcoma, although rare, is an aggressive cancer that has historically been difficult to diagnose distinctly from other lung cancers. Microscopic slide stains were once used to identify the presence of both connective and epithelial cancer, but immunohistology, an improved diagnostic technique introduced in the 1980s, is more effective. The prognosis for survival and recovery depends less on the carcinoma component of the cancer than on the connective tissue tumor – the sarcoma, which is often the variable influencing survival and recovery.
Some female reproductive organs contain both epithelial and connective tissue, making them relatively more vulnerable to carcinosarcoma. In the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, the condition is also called a mixed Mullerian tumor. Sometimes the sarcoma is present in the endometrium, but other times it is found in the muscle or cartilage outside the uterus or ovaries. It usually occurs in post-menopausal women, its causes are unclear. There are, however, some known risk factors that are shared with other cancers, including estrogen therapy and radiation therapy near the female reproductive organs.
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