title: Clinical trials and soft tissue sarcomas.
abstract: Soft tissue sarcomas are a challenging disease entity with a variety of histologic subtypes that can arise anywhere on the body. Much effort has been put forward to advance the care of patients with soft tissue sarcomas. Radical amputations have largely given way to limb-sparing procedures. With multimodality treatment, there has been progress in local control rates as well. As knowledge of the basic biology of this disease grows, there likely will be new strategies to treat soft tissue sarcomas. The development of STI-571, and its demonstrated effectiveness in GIST, represents an important advance in the treatment of these tumors and potentially a new paradigm for the development of therapeutic intervention in other sarcomas. Developing collaboration among ACOSOG other cooperative groups in the United States, Canada, and Europe may provide physicians with new venues for asking important clinical questions about these low-incidence tumors. The importance of collaboration in enrolling patients in clinical trials to evaluate these future therapies cannot be overstated.
authors.affiliation: Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Ashwani
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rajput
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Kraybill
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*