Dr. D’Amato on the Diminishing Role of Chemotherapy in Sarcoma

Gina Z. D'Amato, MD, associate professor and assistant director of Clinical Research, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System, discusses the diminishing role of chemotherapy in sarcoma.

Although chemotherapy has demonstrated substantial efficacy in many sarcoma subtypes, the treatment is associated with significant toxicity, D’Amato says.

Some sarcoma subtypes are sensitive to particular chemotherapy regimens; however, the majority of chemotherapy is nonspecific as it targets cell division, explains D’Amato.

Understanding drivers of cancer on a molecular level may allow the field to shift from chemotherapy to more specific, less toxic targeted therapies, D’Amato says.

Although it is unlikely that chemotherapy will lose its role in sarcoma in the foreseeable future, precision medicine may have the potential to eliminate the need for chemotherapy in the distant future, concludes D’Amato.