Alessandro Gronchi

BACKGROUND: Previous trials from our group suggested an overall survival benefit with five cycles of adjuvant full-dose epirubicin plus ifosfamide in localised high-risk soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities or trunk wall, and no difference in overall survival benefit between three cycles versus five cycles of the same neoadjuvant regimen. We aimed to show the superiority of the neoadjuvant administration of histotype-tailored regimen to standard chemotherapy.

METHODS: For this ...

Importance: Patients with soft tissue sarcoma are at risk for local recurrence and distant metastases despite optimal local treatment. Preoperative anthracycline plus ifosfamide chemotherapy improves outcome in common histological subtypes.

Objective: To analyze whether the previously reported improvement in local progression-free survival by adding regional hyperthermia to neoadjuvant chemotherapy translates into improved survival.

Design, Setting, and Participants: Open-label, phase 3 ...

PURPOSE: To compare radiologic response as defined according to both Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) and the new Choi criteria recently proposed for gastrointestinal stromal tumors with pathologic response in high-grade soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs) treated with preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The institutional ethical committee approved the trial in which patients were enrolled. Signed informed consent was obtained. ...

BACKGROUND: Pathological complete response to preoperative treatment in adults with soft-tissue sarcoma can be achieved in only a few patients receiving radiotherapy. This phase 2-3 trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of the hafnium oxide (HfO2) nanoparticle NBTXR3 activated by radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone as a pre-operative treatment in patients with locally advanced soft-tissue sarcoma.

METHODS: Act.In.Sarc is a phase 2-3 randomised, multicentre, international trial. ...

We investigated the activation of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor A (PDGFRA), PDGF receptor B (PDGFRB), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and their downstream pathways in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs). PDGFRA, PDGFRB, and EGFR were immunohistochemically, biochemically, cytogenetically, and mutationally analyzed along with the detection of their cognate ligands in 16 neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-related and 11 sporadic MPNSTs. The activation of ...

BACKGROUND: Unlike for extremity sarcomas, the efficacy of radiotherapy for retroperitoneal sarcoma is not established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of preoperative radiotherapy plus surgery versus surgery alone on abdominal recurrence-free survival.

METHODS: EORTC-62092 is an open-label, randomised, phase 3 study done in 31 research institutions, hospitals, and cancer centres in 13 countries in Europe and North America. Adults (aged ≥18 years) with histologically ...

BACKGROUND: The current American Joint Committee on Cancer/Union for International Cancer Control (AJCC/UICC) staging system does not have sufficient details to encompass the variety of soft-tissue sarcomas, and available prognostic methods need refinement. We aimed to develop and externally validate two prediction nomograms for overall survival and distant metastases in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma in their extremities.

METHODS: Consecutive patients who had had an operation at the ...

PURPOSE: In 2004, we started an intergroup randomized trial of adjuvant imatinib versus no further therapy after R0-R1 surgery patients with localized, high- or intermediate-risk GI stromal tumor (GIST).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to 2 years of imatinib 400 mg daily or no further therapy after surgery. The primary end point was overall survival; relapse-free survival (RFS), relapse-free interval, and toxicity were secondary end points. In 2009, given the ...

BACKGROUND: The use of potential surrogate end points for overall survival, such as disease-free survival (DFS) or time-to-treatment failure (TTF) is increasingly common in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in cancer. However, the definition of time-to-event (TTE) end points is rarely precise and lacks uniformity across trials. End point definition can impact trial results by affecting estimation of treatment effect and statistical power. The DATECAN initiative (Definition for the ...

Inflammatory mediators present in the tumor milieu may promote cancer progression and are considered promising targets of novel biological therapies. We previously reported that the marine antitumor agent trabectedin, approved in Europe in 2007 for soft tissue sarcomas and in 2009 for ovarian cancer, was able to downmodulate the production of selected cytokines/chemokines in immune cells. Patients with myxoid liposarcoma (MLS), a subtype characterized by the expression of the oncogenic ...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to compare the prognostic relevance of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) versus Choi criteria for the assessment of response in patients with high-risk soft tissue sarcoma of the extremities or trunk wall who received preoperative chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy in a phase 3 trial.

METHODS: Patients received 3 cycles of preoperative epirubicin + ifosfamide with or without radiotherapy. The diagnostic concordance ...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that trabectedin (ecteinascidin-743) could have antitumour activity in soft-tissue sarcoma. We aimed to study the usefulness of trabectedin in the treatment of patients with myxoid liposarcomas, a subtype of liposarcoma that is associated with specific chromosomal translocations t(12;16)(q13;p11) or t(12;22)(q13;q12) that result in the formation of DDIT3-FUS or DDIT3-EWSR1 fusion proteins.

METHODS: 51 patients with advanced pretreated myxoid ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Imatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of BCR-ABL, KIT, and platelet-derived growth factor receptor, is used in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Primary and acquired resistance to the drug can occur in both diseases. Molecular mechanisms have been reported in CML and GIST for primary resistance, whereas extensive studies on the mechanisms responsible for secondary resistance have been almost exclusively ...

BACKGROUND: Retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS) are rare tumors composed of several well defined histologic subtypes. The aim of this study was to analyze patterns of recurrence and treatment variations in a large population of patients, treated at reference centers.

METHODS: All consecutive patients with primary RPS treated at 6 European and 2 North American institutions between January 2002 and December 2011 were included. Five, 8, and 10-year overall survival (OS) and crude cumulative ...