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Molecular profiling of sarcomas: new vistas for precision medicine

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Abstract

Sarcoma is a large and heterogeneous group of malignant mesenchymal neoplasms with significant histological overlap. Accurate diagnosis can be challenging yet important for selecting the appropriate treatment approach and prognosis. The currently torrid pace of new genomic discoveries aids our classification and diagnosis of sarcomas, understanding of pathogenesis, development of new medications, and identification of alterations that predict prognosis and response to therapy. Unfortunately, demonstrating effective targets for precision oncology has been elusive in most sarcoma types. The list of potential targets greatly outnumbers the list of available inhibitors at the present time. This review will discuss the role of molecular profiling in sarcomas in general with emphasis on selected entities with particular clinical relevance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Tariq Al-Zaid

  2. Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe, Boulevard—Unit 85, Houston, TX, 77030-4009, USA

    Wei-Lien Wang & Alexander J. Lazar

  3. Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Wei-Lien Wang & Alexander J. Lazar

  4. Sarcoma Research Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Wei-Lien Wang & Alexander J. Lazar

  5. Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Neeta Somaiah

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  1. Tariq Al-Zaid
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  2. Wei-Lien Wang
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  3. Neeta Somaiah
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  4. Alexander J. Lazar
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Correspondence to Alexander J. Lazar.

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Funding

This study was supported by Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation (WLW, AJL).

Conflict of interest

Potentially relevant to the content of this manuscript, Dr. Lazar is a Consultant to, on Advisory Boards for, or receives research support from BMS, Novartis, ArcherDX, Genentech/Roche, Medimmune/AstraZeneca, GSK, and Merck. The remaining authors report no potential conflicts.

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Al-Zaid, T., Wang, WL., Somaiah, N. et al. Molecular profiling of sarcomas: new vistas for precision medicine. Virchows Arch 471, 243–255 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-017-2174-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-017-2174-3

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