Many years ago, I used to work in the sarcoma and GIST space, which is a very interesting and fascinating disease to explore from a biology perspective. There are many different subsets of sarcoma, several different histologies, as well as numerous targets such as KIT in gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST). Some of these subsets are sensitive to chemotherapy such as doxorubicin, while others such as GIST are sensitive to targeted therapies including imatinib, sunitinib, regorafenib etc. Imatinib (Gleevec) is particularly effective in GISTs with exon 11, while the less common exon 9 has been shown to be more sensitive to sunitinib (Sutent), for example.

Often pharma companies will work with the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC) cooperative group to undertake a phase 1 allcomers trial to evaluate which subsets might be appropriate for a given therapy, before exploring a narrower inclusion/exclusion criteria in a larger phase 2 or 3 study.  You can check out their current clinical trials in sarcomas here.

Overall, people with malignant sarcomas tend to be seen by specialist centres where there are usually clinical trials available, representing a way to determine which of the agents in development are superior to the current standard of care.

One of my favourite moments at ASCO this year was escaping the heavily mobbed poster halls to sit down for a quiet ‘fireside chat’ and catching up with an expert in this field to learn more about the latest new developments in sarcoma.

I’m delighted to publish another thought leader discussion today on Biotech Strategy Blog (BSB), where we have an in-depth interview with Dr Margaret von Mehren, the Director of Sarcoma Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center.  She has spent spent her career trying to identify new therapeutics for gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST), as well as soft tissue sarcomas (STS).

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