Usually, alveolar soft tissue sarcoma, which usually affects adolescents and young adults, is treated with surgery. The part affected by the disease is removed, and sometimes an amputation is necessary. But this only works when the pathology is localized. When it spreads, the 5-year survival rate drops from 91% to 60%reminds the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. But recently, the Food and drug administration authorized a new treatment, reveals theEuropean Pharmaceutical Review.
An immunotherapy used against other cancers
Chemotherapy is not listed in the ways to treat PMDS. Besides surgery, radiation therapy can be used. But the National Cancer Institute conducted a study on a treatment by immunotherapy which shows interesting results on the advanced forms of this cancer.
This is not a new treatment because theatezolizumab is already used in the United States to treat other types of cancer, such as lung or liver.
The treatment was tested on 49 patients with metastasized PMDS (from all over the world), excluding the option of surgery. They received an infusion every 21 days of this immunotherapy. In most of them, it stabilized the disease, and in a third, it made the tumors regress.. According to the researchers, the treatment would help the immune system to better counteract the disease.
After two years of treatment, the patients were able to take a break (up to two years), being monitored very regularly. The doctors realized thatnone of them experienced disease progression in this time frame. While 41% of patients noted significant adverse effects (extremity pain, diarrhea, hyperglycemia, anemia, etc.), none chose to stop.
Sources: European Pharmaceutical Review, Dana-Farber cancer institute
