Dr. Bailey on Clinical Needs in Pediatric Patients With Bone Sarcoma

Kelly Bailey, MD, PhD, physician, department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discusses clinical needs in pediatric patients with bone sarcoma.

There are 3 clinical needs for pediatric patients with bone sarcoma, says Bailey. Physicians need to prevent metastases from occurring, better detect micrometastatic disease before it is visible on PET scans or CT scans, and better treat metastases once they occur.

Progress has been limited in the past 3 decades in pediatric patients with metastatic disease, says Bailey. Therefore, when relapse occurs, they need to be sampled and biopsied because metastatic tumors are not like original tumors. If patients consent, these samples can also be given to the Children’s Oncology Group for further testing.

Although progress has been limited, Bailey states that there are therapeutic opportunities that physicians could explore if they understood what signaling pathways are apparent in those metastatic lesions.