Project description:Soft-tissue sarcoma (sts) is a rare mesenchymal malignancy that accounts for less than 1% of all adult tumours. Despite the successful advancement of localized therapies such as surgery and radiotherapy, these tumours can, for many, recur-often with metastatic disease. In the advanced setting, the role of systemic therapies is modest and is associated with poor survival. With the discovery of immunotherapies in other tumour types such as melanoma and lung cancer, interest has been renewed in exploring immunotherapy in sts. The biology of some stss makes them ripe for immunotherapy intervention; for example, some stss might have chromosomal translocations resulting in pathognomonic fusion products that have been shown to express cancer/testis antigens. Here, we present a targeted review of the published data and ongoing clinical trials for immunotherapies in patients with sarcoma, which comprise immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell therapies, and cancer vaccines.
Project description:Soft tissue sarcomas remain one of the rarest malignancies with numerous subtypes that go undiagnosed. The PDGFRα antagonist Olaratumab (Lartruvo) was withdrawn from the market due to disappointing findings in the phase III studies. We share our experience with this medication in a tertiary care center in the Middle East and North Africa region. Monitor the effect of Olaratumab on sarcomas when it was used prior to its withdrawal, and compare our findings with the literature. We performed a retrospective analysis of adult patients with advanced-/metastatic soft tissue sarcomas treated with at least two cycles of Olaratumab at a tertiary care center in Lebanon during the period from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2018. Fifteen patients were included in the study. The mean age was 49 with a range of 26-75 years. The median duration of the use of Olaratumab was 21.3 months with a range of 7.3-37 months. The average number of number of cycles received per patient was four. Five patients were deceased. Median PFS was 7.87 months (95% CI 5.28-10.45), and mean OS was 12.26 months (95% CI 8.47-16.05) Median OS was 9.8 months (95% CI 6.07-13.53). Olaratumab has been withdrawn from the market, and it is currently being investigated as part of the phase II ANNOUNCE 2 trial. Our experience from a tertiary care center shows results similar to those reported in the literature. The immunogenicity and heterogeneity of soft tissue sarcomas pose a challenge to the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas, but they also allow a wide array of possible management solutions.
Project description:Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are heterogeneous rare malignancies comprising ~1% of all solid cancers in adults and including more than 70 histological and molecular subtypes with different pathological and clinical development characteristics. Over the last two decades, the increased knowledge of the new molecular and genomic mechanisms of different STS histotypes allowed for a reclassification of these tumors and consequently to the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents. Generally, surgery, in combination with radiotherapy only in selected cases of localized disease, represents the most common treatment of primary STS, whereas the principal treatment modality for locally advanced or metastatic disease is first-line chemotherapy. The principal treatment for the preponderance of STS patients is usually an anthracycline (epirubicin and doxorubicin) in monotherapy or in combination with other drug novel chemotherapeutic agents. However, survival for treated patients with metastatic disease is poor, and a 2-years survival rate is about 30%. In this scenario, Pharmacogenomics (PGx) biomarkers that can predict drug response play an important role in the improvement of molecular diagnostics in clinical routines and contribute to elucidating the genetic basis for the differences in treatment efficacy and toxicity among STS patients. This review focuses on recent insight in the PGx biomarkers that have been described to modulate responsiveness and toxicity parameters of conventional and new chemotherapeutics drugs in several STS histotypes.
Project description:BackgroundSynovial sarcoma (SynSa) is one of the most common translocation-related soft tissue sarcomas. Patients with metastatic SynSa have limited treatment options and a very poor prognosis. Several novel experimental therapies are currently being explored in clinical trials, including T cell-based therapies targeting cancer testis antigens such as New York esophageal squamous cell carcinoma 1 (NY-ESO-1) or melanoma-associated antigen A4 (MAGE-A4), and degraders targeting bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9). Preclinical studies investigate inhibitors of Yes associated protein 1 (YAP1), transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) and inhibitors of chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4).MethodsWe explored the immunohistochemical expression of these targets using a tissue microarray (TMA) constructed from 91 clinical SynSa samples and correlated these findings with corresponding clinicopathological data.ResultsExpression of MAGE-A4 and NY-ESO-1 was found in 69 % and 56 % of the samples, respectively. NY-ESO-1 was statistically higher expressed in samples from metastatic lesions as compared to samples from primary tumors. Nuclear expression of YAP1 and TAZ was observed in 92 % and 51 % of the samples, respectively. CXCR4 was expressed in the majority of the samples (82 %). BRD9 was highly expressed in all specimens. No prognostic role could be identified for any of the investigated proteins.ConclusionThis study is a comprehensive study providing real-world data on the expression of several actionable proteins in a large proportion of SynSa samples. All evaluated markers were expressed in a clinically meaningful proportion of cases represented in our TMA, supporting the relevance of ongoing preclinical and clinical research with novel agents directed against these targets.
Project description:PurposeSoft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the forearm are rare. We aim to assess their oncological and functional outcomes.MethodsWe retrospectively evaluated 34 patients who underwent surgical excision for forearm STS at our institution between 1993 and 2020. We analyzed postoperative Musculoskeletal Tumor Society rating scale (MSTS) and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), metastasis-free survival, and overall survival (OS) rates. The significance of the following variables was determined: age, sex, histology, tumor size, Fédération Nationale des Centres de Lutte contre le Cancer grade, American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, surgical margin, unplanned excision, metastases upon initial presentation, receipt of chemotherapy, and radiotherapy (RT).ResultsThe postoperative median MSTS score was 28. Bone resection or major nerve palsy was the only factor that influenced MSTS scores. The median MSTS scores in patients with or without bone resection or major nerve palsy were 24 and 29, respectively (P < 0.001). The 5-year LRFS rates was 87%. Univariate analysis revealed that the histological diagnosis of myxofibrosarcoma was the only factor that influenced LRFS (P = 0.047). The 5-year MFS rates was 71%. In univariate analysis, no factors were associated with MFS. The 5-year OS rates was 79%. Age was the only factor that influenced OS (P = 0.01).ConclusionIn the treatment of forearm STS, reconstruction of the skin and tendon can compensate for function, while bone resection and major nerve disturbance cannot. Careful follow-up is important, especially in patients with myxofibrosarcoma, due to its likelihood of local recurrence.
Project description:Soft-tissue sarcoma (sts) is rare and represents approximately 7% of cancers in children and in adolescents less than 20 years of age. Rhabdomyosarcoma (rms) is most prevalent in children less than 10 years of age and peaks again during adolescence (16-19 years of age). Multi-agent chemotherapy constitutes the mainstay of treatment for rms. In other non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue tumours, such as synovial sarcoma, evidence for routine use of chemotherapy is less robust, and alternative treatment options, including targeted agents and immunotherapy, are being explored. In this review, we focus on chemotherapy for pediatric-type rms and discuss the advances and challenges in systemic treatment for select non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue tumours in children and adolescents. We support an increasingly cooperative approach for treating pediatric and adult sts.
Project description:Complete en bloc surgical resection offers the best opportunity for the cure of primary retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS). The potential for disease recurrence, in the form of both loco-regional recurrence and distant metastases, underpins the rationale for postoperative surveillance. There is a paucity of high-quality evidence underpinning follow-up for RPS patients, and most practice guidelines draw from expert opinion and evidence from soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities. The available observational retrospective data analysis has failed to demonstrate that high-intensity radiological surveillance improves the overall survival in patients. The lack of a robust evidence base has given rise to variations in approaches to post-operative surveillance strategies adopted by specialist centres managing RPS across the world. More high-quality prospective research is needed and planned to more clearly support surveillance approaches that balance oncologic outcomes, patient-centric care, and health service value. Risk stratification tools exist and are available for use in routine practice. Their use will likely support more individualised post-operative surveillance moving forward. Surveillance will likely be underpinned by serial radiological imaging for the medium term. However, developments in genomics offer hope for biomarkers such as ctDNA to impact patient care positively in the future and further support individualised patient care pathways.
Project description:Soft tissue sarcoma (STS), although heterogeneous in histopathology presentation, has mostly been treated with chemotherapy agents as one entity. Our understanding of crucial genomic alterations in different STS histologies and the advent of molecular-targeted agents have reshaped the treatment paradigm for advanced STS. Small-molecule inhibitors of c-KIT, plate-derived growth factor receptor alpha, c-MET, BRAF, anaplastic lymphoma kinase, ROS1 and colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor have been successfully validated in clinical studies to yield practice-changing results. Inhibitors of other novel genomic targets including mouse double minute 2 homolog, cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6, mitogen-activated protein kinase and epigenetic regulators are expected to be developed in the near future. Furthermore, with the advancement and accessibility of molecular diagnosis and next-generation sequencing, a genomic-based therapeutic approach should be widely applicable to advanced STS patients. This review will focus on the progress of genomic-guided therapy tailored to each molecular alteration of different STS histologies.