Management of Soft Tissue Sarcomas and GIST

Dear Colleagues,

Soft tissue sarcomas and GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumors) are rare cancers and very heterogeneous neoplasms. For this reason, histological diagnosis is often very difficult, and the correct therapeutic approach is very complex. Soft tissue sarcomas and GISTs must always be referred to reference centers.
First-line treatment of soft tissue sarcomas is well standardized, but second-line treatment can vary depending on the histotype (histolog-driven treatment). In recent years, many new drugs (target therapy) have been tested in the treatment of sarcomas with promising results. Immunotherapy has reported disappointing results, showing some activity only against some particular histologies.

The treatment of metastatic GISTs is less complex and involves the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. At this time, four drugs are indicated and registered for metastatic GIST treatment: imatinib in the first line, sunitinib in the second line, regorafenib in the third line, and avapritinib for metastatic GIST with PDGFRA D842V mutation. The third line study comparing avapritinib versus regorafenib was recently closed, and the second line study ripretinib versus sunitinb is still open.

In this Special Issue, experts in this field will review the current approaches to the management of patients with sarcomas and GIST and they will also focus on the molecular and immunological aspects of this heterogeneous group of neoplasms.

Dr. Giuseppe Badalamenti
Dr. Lorena Incorvaia
Dr. Daniele Fanale
Guest Editors

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