Major developments in the understanding and treatment of soft-tissue sarcomas in adults

Soft-tissue sarcomas in adults comprise less than 1% of human malignancies by incidence, yet this class of tumors is highly visible in the oncology research literature. Great strides are being made in the understanding of this heterogeneous class of cancers of mesenchymal origin. A better understanding of the benefits and limitations of current therapeutic strategies for sarcomas accompanies this improved understanding of the diseases. In this review, key developments from 1997 are presented and discussed, including the most recent data analyzing the use of adjuvant chemotherapy. Other relevant topics include new prognostic factors for sarcomas, research in new drugs, the chemotherapy dose-response relationship, and novel biological insights into sarcomas, which are spurring research regarding nontoxic differentiation therapy for this disease.