J. Andrew Livingston, MD, and Brian Van Tine, MD, PhD, on Sarcoma Awareness Month 2023

“Don't forget about sarcomas. When you're seeing a new patient, whether that's in the primary care clinic or in the oncologist's office, remember that sarcomas are out there and they're more frequent than we might think. And really don't hesitate to reach out... We have a shared goal in bringing the best treatments for these patients.”

Cell therapy trials in the clinical stage have recently come to the sarcoma field, bringing with them hope of efficacious treatments for patients with limited options for their disease. J. Andrew Livingston, MD, MS, and Brian Van Tine, MD, PhD, are 2 pioneering investigators for these novel therapies, with the former an investigator for the soon-to-initiate clinical trial of phase 1/1b trial of NY-ESO-1 TCR/IL-15 NK (Syena) in patients with advanced synovial sarcoma (SS) and myxoid/round cell liposarcoma and the latter an investigator for the SPEARHEAD-1 trial (NCT04044768) of afamitresgene autoleucel (afami-cel; AdaptImmune), which has continued to show a clinical benefit in patients with SS.

July is Sarcoma Awareness Month and CGTLive got in touch with Livingston, who is an associate professor in the department of sarcoma medical oncology and the department of pediatrics patient care at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Van Tine, who is a professor of medicine and pediatrics, at Washington University in St. Louis, to learn what they think needs more attention in the field of sarcoma. Livingston urged clinicians to keep sarcomas in mind and refer patients with sarcomas to an expert center. Van Tine noted that preclinical studies in felines and canines, in which sarcomas, and in particular osteosarcomas, are more common than in humans, may help forward research for humans and urged people to enroll their pets in clinical trials as well.