Advancing therapies, improving outcomes
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Jake Stein, MD, MPH, said recent advances in targeted therapies, immunotherapy and radiation techniques are improving outcomes for patients diagnosed with this group of cancers.
“These are really rare cancers that come from bone and soft tissue,” said Stein, an assistant professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine who specializes in the treatment of sarcoma at UNC Health. “There are over a hundred different subtypes of sarcoma.”
Stein emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary care, which brings together surgical, medical and radiation oncologists and other clinicians to develop a personalized treatment plan for each patient. He added that research is essential to improve treatments and outcomes.
“The rarity of these tumors is what gets in the way of research,” Stein said. “It is hard to get enough patients in a clinical trial to really answer the key questions that you might have. Research in sarcoma is absolutely critical, and it’s challenging.”