University Campus Bio-Medico, Medical Oncology, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128, Rome, Italy.
Expert Opin Emerg Drugs. 2010 Jun;15(2):237-48. doi: 10.1517/14728211003592108.
Soft tissue sarcomas are rare mesenchymal tumors accounting for < 1% of all adult neoplasia. In the last decade, locally advanced and metastatic soft tissue sarcoma have been managed only through surgery, radiotherapy and standard chemotherapy (mainly based on anthracycline and ifosfamide). Despite the efforts, overall 5-year survival rate in patients with soft tissue sarcomas of all stages remains only 50 - 60%.
In the present article, all the main new molecules under clinical evaluation for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma are revised by describing the mechanism of action, the biological rationale of their use in sarcoma and by reporting the available data about safety and efficacy, up to 2009.
A brief summary of the standard treatments available at the moment and a complete analysis of the state of art about the development of new target therapies in the management of soft tissue sarcoma.
The identification of new biological therapies that target soft tissue sarcoma tumorigenesis key points seems to offer a real opportunity of improving the prognosis of this often aggressive disease. In this sense, the best management for soft tissue sarcoma patients is in a clinical trial and participation in clinical trials should be encouraged.
软组织肉瘤是罕见的间叶组织肿瘤，占所有成人肿瘤的<1%。在过去的十年中，局部晚期和转移性软组织肉瘤仅通过手术、放疗和标准化疗（主要基于蒽环类药物和异环磷酰胺）来治疗。尽管付出了努力，但所有阶段软组织肉瘤患者的总体 5 年生存率仍仅为 50-60%。
本文通过描述作用机制、在肉瘤中使用这些药物的生物学原理，并报告截至 2009 年的安全性和疗效数据，对所有正在临床评估用于治疗软组织肉瘤的主要新分子进行了修订。
目前可获得的标准治疗方法的简要总结，以及关于开发新的软组织肉瘤靶向治疗方法来管理软组织肉瘤的最新进展的全面分析。
针对软组织肉瘤肿瘤发生关键点的新生物疗法的确定似乎为改善这种侵袭性疾病的预后提供了真正的机会。在这方面，软组织肉瘤患者的最佳治疗方法是临床试验，应鼓励参与临床试验。
