Sarcomas

A technically negative trial in high-risk adult soft tissue sarcoma nonetheless produced a significant survival benefit for anthracycline-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Lori Rink, PhD, discusses the groundbreaking impact of imatinib (Gleevec) in gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the heterogeneity of the disease and its impact on personalizing treatment, and emerging therapies in the field.

Katherine Thornton, MD, discusses the potential that immunotherapy agents could have in the field of sarcoma, as well as the role of genomic profiling in understanding the patients who may benefit from select treatments.

A comparison of anatomic and functional imaging in the assessment of clinical outcomes in patients with Ewing sarcoma has shown that FDG-PET, assessed by PERCIST criteria, was superior in predicting clinical benefits and identifying responses.

Katherine Thornton, MD, discusses the use of trabectedin and eribulin both within and outside of their approved indications for soft tissue sarcoma.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended approval of the PDGFRα antagonist olaratumab for use in combination with doxorubicin for patients with advanced soft tissue. sarcoma who are not good candidates for radiotherapy or surgery.

Noah Federman, MD, director, Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program, University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the challenges associated with treating adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with sarcoma.

Denise Reinke, MS, NP, discusses the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration, as well as the challenges and up-and-coming advancements in sarcoma.

Treatment with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) led to a reduction of tumor size in 33% of patients with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and dedifferentiated liposarcoma.

The FDA has placed a partial clinical hold on a planned pivotal trial examining an investigational T-cell therapy in patients with myxoid round cell liposarcoma.