Emerging therapies for adult soft tissue sarcoma

Abstract

Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) are a broad group of rare tumors. Cornerstone of treatment is surgery. Complementary radiotherapy is recommended in high-risk STS arising from extremities. Doxorubicine ± ifosfamide based cytotoxic chemotherapy, explored in few randomized trials, showed a certain degree of activity, playing an established role only in unresectable disease. Since peculiar chemosensitivity towards alternative drugs was described for different metastatic subtypes in second or further lines, the modern concept of 'histology-driven chemotherapy' has been accepted and employed: gemicitabine ± dacarbazine, trabectedin and taxanes used respectively in patients with leiomyosarcoma, solitary fibrous tumor, myxoid/round cell liposarcoma, angiosarcoma. Recent discoveries about molecular pathways involved in STS tumorogenesis led to develop molecular targeted agents such as imatinib used in advanced dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) or metastatic DFSP-related fibrosarcoma, pazopanib, approved as second line regimen in advanced non-adipocitic STS and recently sunitinib in solitary fibrous tumors, alveolar soft part sarcoma and extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma.

Keywords: adjuvant; chemotherapy; doxorubicin; ifosfamide; imatinib; neoadjuvant; palliation; sarcoma; trabectedin; trgeted therapy.