This book is primarily intended for pathologists in clinical practice, training, research, and teaching, as well as other specialists seeking information on soft tissue tumors. The book covers all topics typically associated with the subspecialty of soft tissue pathology: tumors of mesenchymal and certain neuroectodermal cells, and those of uncertain histogenesis. Additionally, a wide spectrum of lesion types not traditionally counted in soft tissue pathology is included. The reason for this is practical: conditions such as metastatic melanoma, metastatic carcinoma, extranodal hematopoietic neoplasms, synovial pathology, and foreign body reactions are common diagnostic problems, and they are not typically covered in any other subspecialty text. This text also includes clinical management from surgical and oncological points of view. Separate chapters on radiology, immunohistochemistry, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, and cytology give a framework for clinical and diagnostic evaluation of soft tissue tumors.

Besides information on tumor morphology, immunohistochemistry, and genetics, the demographics of as many tumor types as possible have been illustrated: the age and sex distribution in bar graphs, and anatomic distribution in pie charts. Unless otherwise stated, this information is based on data from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Illustrations are usually made in composites to enable a more compact and comprehensive presentation of different tumor entities and diagnostic modalities. References are selected to represent the central articles and series, recognizing that comprehensive bibliography, including reported cases, are available online at PubMed.