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- • About 10 percent of people with von Recklinghausen's disease, a rare genetic abnormality affecting nerves, will
- develop neurofibrosarcoma. Malignant schwannomas may also develop as part of the condition.
- • Other genetically linked diseases that have a slightly increased incidence of associated sarcomas include Werner's
- syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, intestinal polyposis, basal cell nevus syndrome and Gardner's syndrome.
- • Lymphangiosarcoma is associated with people who have chronic swelling of an arm or leg and rarely may
- develop after many years in a swollen arm after mastectomy.
- • Fibrosarcomas may develop after high-dose radiation formerly given for benign conditions, such as tuberculosis
- of the joints or thyroid disease.
- • The risk of angiosarcoma of liver increases with exposure to thorotrast (no longer in use), arsenic, vinyl chloride
- or in association with cirrhosis or hemochromatosis.
- • The risk of osteosarcoma increases with radiation exposure, and sarcomas of both bone and soft tissue can occur
- many years after radiotherapy , especially if it was given in childhood. Radiation exposure causes less than 5
- percent of osteosarcomas and fibrosarcomas, however. (Many years ago, exposure to radium caused
- osteosarcomas in painters of glow-in-the-dark watch faces.)
- • Various causes of chronic irritation or stimulation to bones, including chronic bone infection, fractures and
- Paget's disease increase the risk.
- • Sarcomas have developed in old scars or areas of trauma, but any definite cause has not been proved.
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