Sarcoma UK has announced almost £300,000 in funding for two research projects to improve diagnosis and treatment of two ultra-rare sarcoma cancers.
The first project funding, totalling £149,990, has been awarded to the Institute of Cancer Research to explore epithelioid sarcoma (EPS). This is a very rare sarcoma – an average of 19 cases are diagnosed every year in England – and its cause is unknown. It can occur anywhere throughout the body but most often occurs in the hands, arms, feet and legs. EPS is very challenging to treat with standard drugs used for sarcoma which sadly means that outcomes are poor for many patients.
A project led by Dr Paul Huang will try to understand why this subtype doesn’t respond well to treatment, develop more accurate diagnostic tools, and explore whether immunotherapy could be effective. International collaboration is crucial to advance this challenging area of research and the project will also work with leading scientists at the German Cancer Research Center and the Gustave Roussy Institute in France.
In addition, £149,973 will go to University College London to understand what drives endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS), a rare cancer of the womb which can spread to other parts of the body. There are an average of 79 cases diagnosed every year in England and ESS is primarily treated by surgery to remove the womb, but the disease often comes back after treatment.
This project, led by Prof Richard Jenner, will use samples kindly donated by women with this subtype. It will look in particular at a genetic change which may stop the immune system working properly in these cancers, and whether drugs could prevent this damaging effect.
Ultra-rare sarcoma subtypes are defined as having an incidence of less than 1 per million people. Although, individually, very few people are affected by ultra-rare sarcoma subtypes, together they make up 20% of sarcoma cases, and more than 1,000 people will be diagnosed with an ultra-rare sarcoma each year in the UK. Sarcoma UK is one of the biggest funders of sarcoma research in the UK.
Dr Sorrel Bickley, Director of Research, Policy and Support at Sarcoma UK, said: ‘The combined effect of late diagnosis, lack of effective treatments, lack of understanding of disease biology and low patient numbers leaves people with ultra-rare sarcoma subtypes feeling overlooked and ignored. At Sarcoma UK, we know these people want to see funds being invested in research into their sarcoma subtype and that this could help others like them in the future and so we are delighted to be committing £300,000 to these two excellent projects.’
Dr Huang said: ‘We are grateful to Sarcoma UK for their support of this exciting research. We hope that this project will, in the longer term, result in new treatments for this ultra-rare cancer and provide tools for doctors to give patients the most appropriate therapy for them.’
Dr Jenner said: ‘We need to better understand the biology of endometrial stromal sarcoma in order to develop new treatments and so we are excited to be undertaking this new research project. We hope that this project will lay the groundwork for new targeted treatments for this cancer.’
