Molecular prognostic and predictive factors in sarcomas

The use of molecular markers in sarcomas has been primarily for diagnosis, but increasingly they are also used for prognosis and prediction of response to specific therapies. This article presents 3 case reports of sarcomas to illustrate molecular markers for prognosis/predictive purposes. The prototypical example is gastrointestinal stromal tumor, in which the response to imatinib mesylate therapy is predicted by analysis for KIT mutation. In synovial sarcomas, the type of fusion transcript correlates with the clinical course, with SST-SSX2 having better metastasis-free survival than SYT-SSX1. p53 Mutation is an important prognostic factor in multiple tumors, including Ewing sarcoma. Many studies are ongoing, and molecular analysis will become increasingly important in the treatment of sarcomas.