Dr. Navai on Treatment Options in Relapsed/Refractory Sarcoma

Shoba A. Navai, MD, an assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, discusses treatment options for patients with relapsed/refractory sarcoma.

Patients with relapsed/refractory sarcoma have very limited treatment options, says Navai. Despite all of the trials that have been done over the past 40 years in osteosarcoma, there has been no improvement in survival. Although patients have access to chemotherapy and emerging targeted therapies, they have shown limited efficacy, she adds.

HER2 is expressed in some sarcomas and has been explored as a potential target, but it is not gene-amplified, as it is in breast cancer. The levels of surface expression are much lower, and a result, HER2-targeted antibodies have not shown any activity in this setting. CAR T-cell therapies, however, have the ability to detect HER2 mutations at significantly lower levels, concludes Navai.