Establishing biomarkers for soft tissue sarcomas

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a rare and diverse group of tumors. Curative options are limited to localized disease, with surgery being the mainstay. Advanced stages are associated with a poor prognosis. Currently, the prognosis of the patient is based on histological classification and clinical characteristics, with only a few biomarkers having entered clinical practice.

Areas covered

This article covers extensive recent research that has established novel potential biomarkers based on genomics, proteomics, and clinical characteristics. Validating and incorporating these biomarkers into clinical practice can improve prognosis, prediction of recurrence, and treatment response. Relevant literature was collected from PubMed, Scopus, and clinicaltrials.gov databases (November 2023).

Expert opinion

Currently, defining prognostic markers in soft tissue sarcomas remains challenging. More studies are required, especially to personalize treatment through advanced genetic profiling and analysis using individual tumor and patient characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomarker
• genetics
• sarcoma
• STS
• prognosis

Article highlights

• Multiple emerging molecular biomarkers have been reported to have prognostic value in sarcomas but require clinical validation.

• The most important nomogram based on clinical biomarkers in sarcoma is Sarculator, which is an online tool for stratifying risk for STS patients.

• KIT and PDGFR mutations in GIST are recognized as valuable biomarkers in clinical practice, including treatment selection.

• The INdex Complexity Tool for SARComas (CINSARC) created for nontranslocation-related sarcomas, is a 67-gene signature for stratification of metastatic risk and establishing the prognosis of patients.

• Personalized genetic testing to identify the mutations carried out by these tumors, which can significantly improve or worsen the prognosis, is an important factor in the evaluation of the outcome of STS patients.

• Liquid biopsy is emerging as a promising diagnostic tool for sarcomas.

Declaration of interest

P Rutkowski reports having previously received honoraria for lectures and membership of Advisory Boards from BMS, MSD, Pierre Fabre, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, Philogen, Sanofi and Merck outside of the scope of this study. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.