Targeted therapy and promising novel agents for the treatment of advanced soft tissue sarcomas

Introduction: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a rare and difficult to treat malignancy. Efforts to utilize targeted therapy have been ongoing for the last decade and have resulted in the approval of pazopanib for treatment of advanced disease. Although several other agents have been investigated, the inability to predict responses remains a limiting factor to the incorporation of these agents into treatment.Areas covered: The authors summarize recent clinical findings from studies focused on targeted agents in STS. The authors also discuss the potential approaches and ongoing clinical trials with novel agents.Expert opinion: A major challenge in the treatment of advanced STS remains a lack of predictive biomarkers to guide therapy and the heterogeneity of response among different histologies of sarcoma. Incorporation of predictive biomarker analysis into clinical trials is warranted. Additionally, mechanisms of treatment resistance and parallel pathways of tumor growth pose challenges in how we treat these tumors. An active area of research in STS is the use of novel combinations of agents, such as chemotherapy combined with multi-targeted agents. The potential of immune check point inhibitors is being explored in advanced STS and is hoped to further expand our treatment armamentarium.