Contribution of Molecular Biology and Markers to the Prognosis and Management of Patients With Soft Tissue Sarcoma

During the last 10 years, molecular testing of soft tissue tumors has become increasingly important, not only in the diagnostic approach to these lesions, but also regarding their prognosis and pathogenesis. A subset of soft tissue sarcomas bear chromosomal abnormalities including reciprocal translocations, deletions, mutations, and amplifications, which turned out to be histotype specific. Beside their diagnostic value in sarcoma typing and subtyping (always in an appropriate clinical and histologic context), some of these abnormalities (eg, KIT and platelet derived growth factor, alpha chain mutations in gastrointestinal stromal tumors) may also impact on treatment response and prognosis. This review will focus on the potential impact of molecular biology and markers on the prognosis and management of patients with Ewing sarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, myxoid, and well-differentiated or dedifferentiated liposarcoma, sarcoma with myogenic differentiation, and gastrointestinal stromal tumor.