Sarcomas in Adolescents and Young Adults

Adolescents and young adults, caught between the traditionally binary medical systems for children and adults, may be treated variably, depending on which side of the dichotomy they find themselves. As a result, their unique needs may go unmet because they occupy the fringes of the more typical child and adult patient populations. Soft tissue sarcomas in adolescents and young adults are a case in point, spanning the gap between the two fields but focusing on neither. Increasing age seems to be a poor prognosticator for soft tissue sarcomas, but is probably only a marker for other biological variables, patient characteristics, and treatment differences. This article discusses the issues unique to the management of soft tissue sarcomas in this population, pointing out what age-specific data are known and what areas are ripe for collaborative research between medical and pediatric oncologists.