I have a question about sarcomas. How is it that, as malignant tumors arising from mesenchymal tissues, they appear grossly as FLESHY tumors? Especially something like a fibroma or fibrosarcoma, which are made of fibrous connective tissue, shouldnt they be hard like a scar?
Hi, Thanks for writing in. Tissues are made of living cells whether they are arising from fibrous tissue or not. Malignancy is a change that brings about uncontrolled proliferation of tissues in the area of cancer. Fibrous tissue contains more of fibrous elements and is not exactly hard or like a scar. It contains cellular and extracellular components including fibrous cells. There is also stoma between the fibrous cells that contains cells. Since these are living tissues they contain specialized cells and also have cell structure. The concept of hardness is true when considering malignancy, but it will not be rock hard. It is somewhat firm in nature. These features can be better studied using cartography and is being applied in the research of breast malignancy and there is a hypothesis that hard non-compressible tumors can become cancer.