Current Research

Research for sarcoma is ongoing. The following advances may still be under investigation in clinical trials and may not be approved or available at this time. Always discuss all diagnostic and treatment options with your doctor.

Proton or particle beam radiation therapy. Proton or particle beam radiation therapy is a form of radiation therapy that uses particles (protons or other charged particles) that travel only the desired distance in tissue, allowing doctors to target the radiation much more precisely at the tumor and reduce unwanted radiation affecting normal tissues. This procedure is currently only available in a few specialized cancer centers in the United States. Learn more about proton therapy.

Brachytherapy as outpatient treatment. Doctors are exploring a way to give brachytherapy (internal radiation therapy) as an outpatient procedure. Traditionally, patients stayed in the hospital while the radioactive seeds were in place. This newer procedure would allow the patients to go home during treatment.

Isolated limb perfusion (ILP). Isolated limb perfusion is used to treat patients with soft tissue sarcoma that is limited to the arm or leg. Blood flow to the affected arm or leg is temporarily separated from the rest of the body, and high doses of chemotherapy are given directly to the limb. The chemotherapy most commonly used with isolated limb perfusion is melphalan (Alkeran), sometimes in combination with a type of drug called a tumor necrosis factor; neither drug is standard chemotherapy for sarcoma. This procedure is currently only available in a few specialized cancer centers in the United States.

New drugs. New chemotherapy is being developed and tested that may be effective in treating some subtypes of soft tissue sarcoma. An example is trabectedin, which was approved in Europe for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. However, in the United States, FDA only allows patients access to it under special circumstances. Learn more about drug development and approval.

Targeted therapy. As the biological processes that lead to a cell becoming cancerous are better understood, drugs designed to specifically target these processes are being developed. These drugs have the potential to be both less toxic and more effective than current therapies. As explained in the Treatment section, imatinib mesylate and sunitinib malate, a class of drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors, are the first examples of such drugs approved for treatment of specific types of sarcoma, most commonly GIST; a number of other tyrosine kinase inhibitors are being studied in clinical trials. Another targeted therapy, ridaforolimus, is currently being studied in a phase III clinical trial for people with sarcoma that has spread to other parts of the body. Ridaforolimus is a mTOR inhibitor, meaning that it blocks the protein mTOR that participates in cell growth activity.

A number of clinical trials are being done with another class of targeted therapies, called insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGFR) inhibitors. The IGFR is an important growth protein for sarcomas. Inhibiting its activity may be an important new way to improve sarcoma therapy. Early results look promising, especially for patients with Ewing sarcoma, but the clinical trials are still ongoing.

Targeted oncogene treatments. Drugs are being researched that may inhibit the function of one or more of the proteins found in tumor cells that drive cell survival and division.

Genetics. Researchers are learning that some sarcomas have unique genetic “fingerprints.” Understanding these fingerprints may help doctors determine better treatment and possibly better predict a patient’s prognosis.

Angiogenesis inhibitors. Drugs that prevent angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels) starve the tumor of oxygen and nutrients.

Improved drug delivery. Some chemotherapy drugs are incorporated into fat molecules called liposomes to improve the absorption and distribution of the drug in the patient’s body.