[Is there a magic bullet for sarcomas? : Personalised treatment for maligant tumours of bone and soft tissue].

BACKGROUND

Personalised tumour therapies aim to selectively target pathways and structures to which a tumour shows an oncogenic addiction.

OBJECTIVE AND METHOD

This article aims to provide an overview of relevant genetic alterations in bone and soft-tissue tumours, which might serve as potential therapeutic targets for personalised medicines in the future. Recent approaches towards a personalised treatment of various tumours of bone and soft tissues are reviewed.

RESULTS

Molecular diagnosis has become an essential tool for the characterisation of bone and soft-tissue tumours. Currently, no targeted therapies are routinely available for bone sarcomas. Denosumab is merely a symptomatic treatment for giant cell tumours of the bone. Imatinib has become the paradigm of a targeted treatment for subgroups of malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. Antiangiogenic multikinase inhibitors, various other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and monoclonal antibodies are currently being evaluated in several (sub-)types of soft-tissue sarcomas. Sorafenib showed promising results in the treatment of aggressive desmoid-type fibromatosis. Histology-tailored chemotherapies did not yield superior results in a prospective randomised multicentre trial.

CONCLUSION

More in-depth knowledge is required for many sarcomas to link their genetic alterations to tumorigenesis in order to develop efficient personalised treatment strategies. Clinical trial designs need to be adapted to evaluate new therapeutic strategies in these ultra-rare tumours and their various sub-types more efficaciously.