Dr. Movva on Molecular Profiling in Sarcoma

Sujana Movva, MD, medical oncologist, Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses a study presented at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting in which researchers profiled more than 1900 sarcoma specimens to identify potential novel treatment modalities.

Movva says the sarcoma specimens were collected through the Caris Life Sciences. Over 2000 sarcoma specimens were tested on three different platforms. The data was then compiled to try to examine novel pathways involved in different sarcoma subtypes.

Researchers found that profiling of protein expression, gene copy variations, and mutations identified clinically relevant alterations in 99% of sarcomas. TOPO2 was overexpressed in approximately 50% of sarcomas, suggesting that its utility as a biomarker of sensitivity to anthracyclines should be studied, especially in relation to TP53 status in a tumor.