Emerging treatments for soft tissue sarcoma of adults

Soft tissue sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of malignancies arising from mesenchymal tissues. Patients can present with a localised tumour (primary or local recurrence) at different sites (e.g., extremity, abdomen) or metastatic disease, which may require different treatment strategies. Is the surgical resection of a localised sarcoma enough or is it better to give an additional treatment like adjuvant and/or preoperative radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy? Which chemotherapy should be selected in the first or second line situation? Do new treatment options exist, such as targeted therapies? This review provides answers to some of these questions. To decide on consecutive treatment steps, it is important to know as many relevant factors as possible at first presentation. Therefore, the first part of this review discusses the specific characteristics and prognostic factors of importance for treatment planning. A short summary of current therapy strategies and existing standards is then given. The main body of the review summarises information on new and emerging clinical compounds for patients with soft tissue sarcoma of adults, including recent developments of targeted therapy.