Positron Emission Tomography (PET) was much more sensitive and more accurate than conventional imaging methods in detecting response to treatment in sarcoma patients, according to a UCLA study that is among the first to directly compare PET to CT scanning.

A new study reveals significant racial and ethnic differences in the treatment and survival of patients with soft-tissue sarcomas, a rare but dangerous cancer that begins in muscle, fat, blood vessels or other supporting tissue of the body. The findings are published in the March 1, 2008, issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Soft tissue sarcomas-rare tumours of the connective tissue---should be treated at the few centres which see most cases, in order to give patients the best chance of good outcomes,concludes an analysis of sarcoma management in Florida, published in the Annals of Surgery last month.