ORPHA:97338
Melanoma of soft tissue
Also known as: Clear cell sarcoma of the tendons and aponeuroses
Publications
830
88.1th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
1,354
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
1/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare soft tissue tumor characterized by a slowly growing mass typically involving tendons and aponeuroses of the extremities, composed of polygonal or spindle-shaped cells with melanocytic differentiation. The tumor typically affects young adults, who often present with pain or tenderness at the tumor site. Prognosis is poor with high recurrence rates and frequent metastasis, especially to lymph nodes, lung, and bones.
How rare: 1-9 / 100 000 — about one to nine people per hundred thousand.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
Additional Mondo synonyms (1)
clear cell sarcoma of the tendons and aponeuroses
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
1/6 stages with a signal
Research-stage checklist from open sources (GenCC, literature, Monarch when enriched, ClinicalTrials.gov). Not a prognosis or care recommendation.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
830 matched papers (403 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
830
830 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
830 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
403 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 88.1th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 830 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
1,354
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Zhang Y7 papers · 2026
Jichenjunchuang Clinical Laboratory, Hangzhou 310000, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Li H5 papers · 2026
Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University Guangzhou, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Liu Y5 papers · 2026
Faculty of Computing, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Fisher C4 papers · 2014
Sarcoma Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, London SW3 6JJ, UK ; Department of Histopathology, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, 203 Fulham Road, London SW3 6JJ, UK.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Liu Z4 papers · 2025
NHC Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Hunan Key Laboratory of Cancer Metabolism, Hunan Cancer Hospital and the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Zhang J4 papers · 2026
Department of Oral Pathology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Cantisani C3 papers · 2022
UOC of Dermatology, Policlinico Umberto I, Sapienza Medical School of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Guo J3 papers · 2026
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Department of Genitourinary Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Kiss N3 papers · 2022
Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatooncology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Li J3 papers · 2026
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Department of Genitourinary Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, China.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Melanoma of soft tissue" OR "Melanoma of the soft tissue" OR "Clear cell sarcoma of the tendons and aponeuroses" OR "Clear cell sarcoma of tendons and aponeuroses"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Melanoma of soft tissue" OR "Melanoma of the soft tissue" OR "Clear cell sarcoma of the tendons and aponeuroses" OR "Clear cell sarcoma of tendons and aponeuroses"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T05:11:23.301Z