Clinical Corner
When battling sarcoma, is proton therapy a secret weapon?
When battling sarcoma, is proton therapy a secret weapon?
Sometimes called the “forgotten cancer,” sarcoma only makes up approximately 1% of cancer diagnoses in adults — but about 15% of cancers in those under the age of 20, according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research. It forms in the body’s connective tissues that support, protect and give structure to other tissues and organs in the body such as bone, cartilage, fat, blood and lymphatic tissue. While there are more than 70 kinds of sarcomas, they can generally be categorized into two main groups: bone and soft tissue.
Many sarcoma patients require high doses of radiation as part of their curative treatment, and sarcoma can be an ideal candidate for proton therapy. This is a special type of radiotherapy used for cancer treatment that can spare normal tissue in the body from receiving radiation, resulting in fewer and less severe short and long-term side effects than standard radiation therapy, according to the National Association for Proton Therapy.
“The thing about radiation is that it is a nonspecific treatment, so it damages normal tissue just like it damages cancer cells,” said Nancy Mendenhall, M.D., FASTRO, medical director of the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville. “Proton therapy has a better dose distribution so there is less opportunity for injury.”
To read more about the use of proton therapy, click here.
Clinical Trial Highlight: Refractory Cancers
This issue of the UFHCC Connection highlights clinical trials currently recruiting patients with refractory malignancies.
Questions about how to send a patient? Please contact the Clinical Trials Office at cancer-center@ufl.edu or 352.273.8675
This open-label dose escalation and dose expansion study tests a new liposomal Annamycin as a single agent for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML after standard induction therapy. Patients cannot have prior anthracycline cumulative dose >551 mg/m2 or the daunorubicin equivalent which is the recommended non-cardiotoxic level.
Principal Investigator: Jack Hsu, M.D., cell: 352.672.0704
This open-label, single arm study is investigating the use of niraparib (an oral PARPinhibitor) in patients with tumors known to have mutations in BAP1 and a variety of other DNA damage response pathway genes. The primary aim is to determine the objective response rate of patients with BAP1 and other DDR repair pathway deficiencies. Cohorts include the histologies above (regardless of mutation) as well as any tumor histology witha confirmed DDR repair pathway mutation.
Principal Investigator: Thomas George, M.D., cell: 352.339.6672