Utilizing Precision Oncology for the Treatment of Sarcomas

Neeta Somaiah, MD, an associate professor and deputy department chair, Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses her presentation given at the Inaugural Miami Cancer Institute Precision Medicine Oncology Symposium.

During her discussion at the meeting, Somaiah highlighted the use of precision oncology to provide the best outcomes for patients with sarcomas, depending on different molecular histologies or subtypes.

Then, Somaiah highlights the current treatment landscape for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and how recent developments have shaped this space.

Transcription:

0:08 | I am a sarcoma medical oncologist, and I was assigned to discuss how precision oncology is making a difference in the care of patients with sarcoma. We divided the sarcomas into gastrointestinal stromal tumors and the rest of the sarcomas. I [gave] an overview on sarcoma treatment, how we're making progress by dividing and conquering the different subtypes, and the molecular histologies that we see in sarcoma.

0:40 | As you saw in my presentation, what is interesting in the treatment landscape of sarcomas is that in the past, we had very few treatment options for the majority of the sarcomas. There are more than 50 types of sarcomas, and the treatments were mainly chemotherapy-based, and were not specific to either subtype or molecular histology. In the last 10 years, we have seen a lot more approvals for drugs in the sarcoma space, albeit they are approvals for specific subtypes or molecular histologies.

1:22 | I think the recent developments are exciting. It's not just 1 or 2 drugs, but there are multiple drugs. There are drugs that are in the targeted space [and are] targeting specific molecular drivers within different sarcoma types, and then there is some progress made with immunotherapy as well with our first approval for a checkpoint inhibitor in a sarcoma subtype that we just had a couple of weeks ago.