To understand the dynamics of cancer, consider that each cell in the human body performs a specific task. Most of the time the immune system can detect a aberrant cell and destroy it. But sometimes a mutating cell can chemically cloak its deformity and escape the supervision of the body's immune system, hormones and nerves. Free of its mandate to perform a specific function, the cell acts like a renegade teen-ager, creating its own identity, dividing again and again to form its own colony of defective cells. These colonies, called tumors, may take years to mature and manifest, depending on their food source, environment and reproductive sophistication.
Some tumors are harmless.
Others are malignant, or cancerous. While all cancers start the same way, cancer is not just one disease. There are about 100 varieties and as many more specific types. One of the deadliest, most confusing and least researched is soft-tissue sarcoma. The term sarcoma refers to a cancer of the connective tissues or blood vessels that surround and support organs.