I thought I was gaining weight, but it turned out to be a tumor?

Review expert: Zhang Jianwei, deputy chief physician of the Department of Oncology, the Seventh Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

If you ask modern people when they feel the most depressed, I think it should be when they go to the hospital for a checkup . For many people, "going to the hospital for a checkup" is as frightening as riding a roller coaster or playing in a secret room. Only when the test results are all green can they put down the heavy stone in their hearts. But once there is a "special" symptom, it's like a heavy stone has been added to their hearts, and they can't even enjoy their meals.

Recently, I saw a piece of news online that Ms. Cheng, who is in her 50s, had a growing belly in recent years. She thought she was just getting fat, but when she went to the hospital for a checkup, it turned out that she had a large mass in her abdominal cavity! After diagnosis, the mass was confirmed to be a liposarcoma .

Source: Weibo screenshot

From the news, we can see that liposarcoma is actually a malignant tumor with a high degree of malignancy! However, lipoma, which is only one letter different from it, is a benign tumor. These two tumors are occasionally heard in daily life, so what is the difference between them? Why are the names so similar, but the harm is so different?
What is a lipoma?

Think carefully, have you ever had this kind of pimple on your body? If it feels soft, moves when pressed, and is usually painless or itchy, then this pimple may be a lipoma.

Source: Baidu Health

Lipoma is a benign soft tissue tumor formed by the accumulation of mature adipose tissue , most of which are wrapped by a fibrous capsule. Its external manifestation is usually a painless, round, soft, dough-like, and pushable soft tissue mass. Lipoma can grow in many places, often on the limbs and trunk, such as the back, shoulders, neck, and arms, and can also appear in deep tissues. In theory, as long as there is adipose tissue, it may cause lipoma . The ultrasound manifestation of lipoma is a mass with uniform echo, no obvious blood flow signal, and thin linear separations can be seen inside.

Source: Wuhan Union Hospital

Lipoma is common in people aged 40 to 60, and the incidence rate in men is slightly higher than that in women. Why do people get lipoma? At present, the cause of lipoma is not completely clear. From the stage of onset, lipoma is mainly related to the body's fat metabolism. Bad habits such as irregular diet and mental stress will affect fat metabolism, thus causing lipoma.

Many people think that obese people have more fat and are more likely to develop lipomas, but this is not true. In fact, lipomas are not exclusive to fat people, and there is no research to prove that there is a causal relationship between lipomas and obesity. Most lipomas are secondary to endogenous adrenal cortical steroids and alcoholic liver disease. Genetics, obesity, alcoholism, diabetes, etc. may all be the causes of lipomas.

Lipoma is a benign tumor that generally does not develop into a malignant tumor. In addition, it grows very slowly. If it does not affect your daily life, you can ignore it. However, if the tumor is large and compresses the limb nerves, causing pain, or there are obvious changes in body shape in a short period of time, you should pay attention and go to the hospital for further observation.

Source: pixabay

Liposarcoma: The Secret

Unlike lipoma, liposarcoma is a malignant tumor. A very small number of liposarcomas may develop from lipomas, but the probability is extremely low. Generally speaking, liposarcoma is not closely related to lipoma, and the clinical symptoms are also significantly different.

Liposarcoma is a soft tissue tumor that originates from primitive mesenchymal tissue and is composed of fat cells at different stages of differentiation. Liposarcoma usually occurs in a deep location, with invasive growth and unclear boundaries. It can spread to other areas, and sometimes there are blood flow signals on ultrasound.

From the perspective of histological classification, there are five types of liposarcoma, namely well- differentiated liposarcoma , dedifferentiated liposarcoma , pleomorphic LPS, myxoid LPS and round- elled liposarcoma . Among these five types, well-differentiated liposarcoma and dedifferentiated liposarcoma are the most common.

Source: Baidu Health

Different types of liposarcoma have different histological characteristics. For example, well-differentiated liposarcoma is low-grade malignant and mainly has high echoes on ultrasound; pleomorphic liposarcoma is highly malignant and mostly has low echoes on ultrasound, and some may have mixed high echoes. What they have in common is that there are no obvious symptoms in the early stage. Generally, when the tumor grows larger in the middle and late stages, it squeezes the surrounding tissues and organs, and then causes a series of clinical symptoms, such as nausea, abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and diarrhea caused by compression of the gastrointestinal tract; frequent urination and urgency caused by compression of the bladder.

In current medical methods, liposarcoma is generally diagnosed by imaging examinations, including B-ultrasound, X-rays, CT scans and MRI. Because liposarcoma often occurs in the retroperitoneum, the diagnosis is generally to determine whether the mass is located in the retroperitoneal space, and then further identification and treatment plans are formulated.

The treatment of liposarcoma is generally based on surgery. Because it is a malignant tumor, the entire tumor will be removed as much as possible during surgery to achieve a better treatment effect. According to needs, if the liposarcoma is highly malignant and has a greater risk of recurrence, radiotherapy and chemotherapy will be taken before and after surgery to reduce the patient's local recurrence rate and preserve limb function as much as possible.

Source: Jiangyin People's Hospital

With the continuous improvement of domestic medical standards, targeted treatments for liposarcoma are also being improved and developed. The "CSCO Soft Tissue Sarcoma Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines" released in 2019 recommended the CDK4/6 inhibitor Palbociclib for the treatment of retroperitoneal well-differentiated liposarcoma and dedifferentiated liposarcoma.

The cause of liposarcoma is not clear. It is more common in people aged 40 to 60, with no obvious gender difference. Currently, there is no effective prevention method for liposarcoma. The main recommendation is to prevent it through lifestyle and eating habits, such as eating a light diet and eating less high-oil and high-fat foods.

At this point, are you more clear about lipoma and liposarcoma? In short, whether it is a benign lipoma or a malignant liposarcoma, once the body shows symptoms, the most important thing is to seek medical attention in time. If there is a problem, early treatment will be given, and if there is no problem, you can also have peace of mind~