The Cancer Genome Atlas: Impact and Future Directions in Sarcoma

Sarcomas are rare and heterogeneous malignancies. Owing to their low prevalence and limited capacity to conduct large-scale clinical trials, understanding the molecular mechanisms of sarcomagenesis has become important in determining appropriate treatment. The Cancer Genome Atlas soft tissue sarcoma (STS) project (TCGA-SARC) was the largest and most comprehensive attempt to profile the genomics of multiple STS subtypes. TCGA-SARC made huge contributions to disease understanding. Since the publication of TCGA-SARC, numerous studies have used molecular profiling to assess STS biology. Herein molecular profiling studies in STS are reviewed and future directions with regard to omics profiling in STS research are discussed.