Although checkpoint inhibitors have been approved in multiple cancers, they are still under investigation in soft tissue sarcoma (STS). We conducted a retrospective review to report the safety, efficacy, and prognostic factors related to checkpoint inhibitors in STS. A sequential cohort of metastatic STS patients from four institutions treated with checkpoint inhibitors was assembled. Logistic and Cox regression models were applied to determine the effect of patient characteristics, prior treatment, and baseline factors on achieving the best overall response of complete response (CR), partial response (PR), or stable disease (SD) as determined by the treating physician. Eighty-eight patients with two median prior therapies received checkpoint inhibitors. Treatments included pembrolizumab in 47, nivolumab in 6, ipilimumab in 1, combination ipilimumab/nivolumab in 27, and other combination immunotherapies in 7 patients. Immunotherapy was discontinued in 54 patients—72.2% for progression, 16.7% for toxicity, and 11.1% for other reasons. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.1 months and median overall survival was 19.1 months. One patient with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) achieved a CR, while 20 patients had a PR, including 7 UPS, 9 leiomyosarcoma (LMS), and 1 each with alveolar soft part sarcoma, fibroblastic sarcoma, sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma, and myxofibrosarcoma. Forty-five percent (9 of 20) of LMS patients achieved a PR. Twenty-eight patients had SD. Our results confirm the activity and safety of anti-PD-1 therapy in metastatic STS. A notable response rate was observed in UPS and LMS subtypes. This study expands the knowledge base beyond what is currently available from clinical trials involving checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic STS.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. RPM programs commonly incorporate tools to capture and transmit health-relevant data from the home to the clinical space to augment the clinical decision-making process of health care providers. Given the potential to improve patient health outcomes, health care systems around the world are actively engaged in fashioning, implementing, and exploring the outcomes of various RPM program models. However, new challenges to health care systems include increasing RPM program enrollment, optimizing condition-specific RPM programs to best address the needs of specific patient groups, integrating new RPM-derived data streams into existing IT infrastructure, overcoming limited availability of desired remote monitoring technologies, and quantifying the health outcomes produced by RPM use. Herein, we identify stakeholders for RPM in the United States, summarize the landscape of RPM tools available for chronic disease management, discuss the current regulatory environment, delve into the benefits and challenges of integrating these tools into clinical practice, summarize aspects of coverage and reimbursement, and examine the knowledge and policy gaps regarding sustained use of RPM in clinical practice, along with associated opportunities.

Soft tissue sarcomas are a group of rare tumors of mesenchymal origin, and account for less than 1% of all cancers. The most commonly used drug for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma is anthracycline chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin. The major limitation for doxorubicin is cardiotoxicity. Hence, to overcome this limitation and to increase efficacy, aldoxorubicin was developed, which has demonstrated activity in soft tissue sarcomas without much cardiotoxicity. In this review article, we discuss mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, preclinical studies, clinical trial data and safety profile of aldoxorubicin and its potential applicability in the future of sarcoma treatment.

Targeted therapy has shown to be a very effective treatment in tumors with specific genomic drivers. Trk has proven to be one such target. Efforts to target the Trk fusion with specific inhibitors ... Lay abstract Advances in medical science has allowed us to analyze genes within cancer cells and target abnormal genes more precisely. One such target is called NTRK, which carries genetic informat...

Eribulin is a structurally simplified, synthetic macrocyclic ketone analog of halichondrin B, which is a natural, polyether macrolide derived from marine sponges. Eribulin exerts its cytotoxicity by its unique microtubule dynamics inhibitory action. Eribulin was approved in 2010 by the US FDA as a third-line therapy for metastatic breast cancer patients previously treated with an anthracycline and a taxane. In 2016, it was approved for treatment of metastatic liposarcoma for patients who have progressed with anthracycline treatment. In this article, we review the pharmacokinetics, mechanism of action of eribulin with focus on preclinical and clinical data in sarcoma and also the role of miRNAs in soft tissue sarcomas.