Treatments for stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma

The following are treatment options for stage 4 (metastatic or advanced) soft tissue sarcoma. Your healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your needs and work with you to develop a treatment plan.

Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells.

Chemotherapy is usually offered for stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma. It’s used to control the growth and spread of the cancer if surgery canʼt be done. It’s also used as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms of the cancer.

Chemotherapy is most often the first treatment. Itʼs sometimes used in the same time period as radiation therapy (called chemoradiation). Sometimes this treatment can make surgery possible.

Doxorubicin is the standard chemotherapy drug used. Itʼs often used alone, but it may be given in combination with ifosfamide. Other chemotherapy drugs can be used if the standard drug doesn’t work.

Find out more about chemotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma.

Targeted therapy uses drugs to target specific molecules (such as proteins) on cancer cells or inside them to stop the growth and spread of cancer.

Targeted therapy drugs that may be offered for stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma include:

• pazopanib (Votrient)
• imatinib (Gleevec)

The following targeted therapy drugs may be used to treat soft tissue sarcoma with a neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusion:

• larotrectinib (Vitrakvi)
• entrectinib (Rozlytrek)

Find out more about targeted therapy for soft tissue sarcoma.

Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells.

External radiation therapy is sometimes offered for stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma. If surgery can’t be done, radiation therapy may be given at the same time as chemotherapy (called chemoradiation). Sometimes having chemoradiation can make surgery possible.

Radiation therapy may also be used as palliative therapy to relieve or control the symptoms of soft tissue sarcoma.

Find out more about radiation therapy for soft tissue sarcoma.

You may be offered surgery for stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma to relieve symptoms of the cancer (called palliative therapy).

If soft tissue sarcoma spreads to the lungs, it is called lung metastasis. Surgery may be used to remove lung metastases if the cancer has only spread to the lungs.

Find out more about surgery for soft tissue sarcoma.

You may want to consider a type of care to make you feel better without treating the cancer itself. This may be because the cancer treatments don’t work anymore, they’re not likely to improve your condition or they may cause side effects that are hard to cope with. There may also be other reasons why you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment.

Talk to your healthcare team. They can help you choose care and treatment for advanced cancer.

Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people in Canada with soft tissue sarcoma. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.