Smilow Shares CME Seminar: Sarcoma
July 02, 2025April 3, 2025
Presentations by: Drs. Hari Deshpande, Francis Lee,
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- 13280
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- 00:04Hello, everyone.
- 00:06I am Francis Lee. I'm
- 00:07a tumor surgeon, orthopedic oncology
- 00:10at the Yale School of
- 00:11Medicine. It's so much pleasure
- 00:14to meet you on Zoom,
- 00:16and I work with doctor
- 00:17Deshpande, doctor Olino, doctor Ladich.
- 00:20And,
- 00:21we have a very strong
- 00:23team for connective tissue oncology,
- 00:25meaning
- 00:26sarcomas in the muscles and
- 00:28bone.
- 00:29At the same time,
- 00:31we provide
- 00:32all the metastasis
- 00:34from lung, kidney, prostate,
- 00:36thyroid,
- 00:37melanoma
- 00:39to bone, including
- 00:41myeloma and the lymphoma.
- 00:44It has been very exciting
- 00:45year,
- 00:47over the past ten years.
- 00:48My my pain is And,
- 00:51this is what we do
- 00:52all the time. I cannot
- 00:53This patient had a breast
- 00:55cancer,
- 00:56and the pain is unbearable
- 00:58after radiation, chemo and the
- 01:00Prolia. Nothing worked. And you
- 01:03can see actually the femoral
- 01:04head seen through the pelvis.
- 01:07And these are the treatments
- 01:08we are doing now, twelve
- 01:10treatments.
- 01:11And most of them are
- 01:12open procedure,
- 01:14and we just stabilize the
- 01:16bone.
- 01:17So, but But from oncology
- 01:20perspective It it's
- 01:22I do not think this
- 01:23is really right treatment
- 01:25because we are not really
- 01:26addressing
- 01:27the radio or chemo resistant
- 01:29cancers.
- 01:32And this is what we
- 01:33have been doing
- 01:34until twenty sixteen
- 01:36nationwide,
- 01:37actually all over the world.
- 01:39We make a very big
- 01:40skin cut to expose
- 01:43the hip.
- 01:44This particular case is a
- 01:45thyroid
- 01:46papillary cancer
- 01:48destroying the bone.
- 01:50And then we replace the
- 01:51hip using very big implants.
- 01:54But after radiation,
- 01:56patient can get infected,
- 01:58and we cannot continue
- 02:01oncological care due to infection.
- 02:05I moved from Columbia University
- 02:07to Yale in two thousand
- 02:09sixteen,
- 02:10and I was very fortunate
- 02:12to meet doctor Ladich.
- 02:14And this is what I
- 02:15have been dreaming about over
- 02:17the past twenty years.
- 02:19And we
- 02:20have developed
- 02:22a minimally invasive procedure
- 02:25for all the skeletal metastases,
- 02:27just like for all percutaneous
- 02:30procedures for aneurysm
- 02:32and cardiac valve replacement surgery.
- 02:35Instead of making big incision,
- 02:38we are doing the same
- 02:39procedure
- 02:40through a very small tiny
- 02:42incision.
- 02:44Doctor Ladich, can you join
- 02:46or
- 02:47if you cannot join,
- 02:49I I am here, unfortunately.
- 02:51I had a solitary tooth,
- 02:52I can only join by
- 02:53audio, but I can hear
- 02:54you.
- 02:55Do you see any of
- 02:56my slides? Do you see
- 02:58Yes. I I see all
- 02:58of your slides. Correct. Can
- 03:00you add some, with statements?
- 03:02This is the movie you
- 03:03made.
- 03:06Yes. This movie, has a
- 03:08a long backstory, and I
- 03:09will,
- 03:10spare you, from some of
- 03:12the, jufier details because it
- 03:14might be in violation of
- 03:15some of our present day
- 03:16narratives.
- 03:18But,
- 03:19this shows,
- 03:20the the procedure that, doctor
- 03:22Lee, in fact, is out
- 03:23to AORIF,
- 03:24which is a a modification
- 03:27of another,
- 03:29well known,
- 03:30surgical acronym,
- 03:32where a stands for, ablation,
- 03:34o stands
- 03:36for osteoplasty,
- 03:37with a compliant balloon, typically.
- 03:40R is reinforcement,
- 03:42typically
- 03:43cement reinforcement and internal fixation.
- 03:45So as you can see
- 03:46from the animation, this is
- 03:48all done for continuously
- 03:49using a combination of fluoroscopy,
- 03:52and cone beam CT.
- 03:55We are also able to
- 03:56do these with conventional CT
- 03:59in some cases, and we're
- 04:00looking to actually
- 04:03make this even more precise,
- 04:05and,
- 04:07probably even less minimally invasive.
- 04:09That is actually even possible
- 04:10by using
- 04:11navigation and hopefully robotics someday.
- 04:15So the, the approach is
- 04:18that,
- 04:19using,
- 04:20horoscopic guidance,
- 04:22and basic anatomical landmarks, we
- 04:24make a tiny little incision
- 04:25just wide enough to be
- 04:26able to accommodate,
- 04:28one of our guide wires,
- 04:31and then advance it using
- 04:33multi plane velocities,
- 04:36into and through our lesion,
- 04:38target lesion. Typically, in this
- 04:40case, for example, in the
- 04:41acetabulum,
- 04:42we may place a few
- 04:43guide wires,
- 04:45depending on
- 04:46the size and location of
- 04:48the lesion and the need
- 04:50for stabilization.
- 04:51Once we have the guide
- 04:53wire in place, essentially,
- 04:55half the battle is,
- 04:57is, you know, is complete.
- 04:59Now we have our access,
- 05:02and then,
- 05:03over the guide wire, we
- 05:05placed
- 05:06a a cannulated screw that
- 05:08has an, open inner channel,
- 05:10obviously.
- 05:11And now through that channel,
- 05:13that's so we have a
- 05:14portal into the lesion.
- 05:16So through that channel, now
- 05:17we can perform an ablation,
- 05:19thermal ablation. Typically, we do
- 05:21radio frequency, but one can
- 05:22perform any type of an
- 05:24ablated
- 05:26procedure one would like.
- 05:29Some places, some centers use
- 05:30cryoablation.
- 05:32There can be some challenges
- 05:33with cryoablation and injection of
- 05:35cement because they can obviously
- 05:38cryo create a general size
- 05:40fall. It might be a
- 05:41little harder to inject cement.
- 05:42So we typically will use
- 05:43heat ablation.
- 05:45Once we are, done with,
- 05:47ablating,
- 05:48we remove our ablation probe,
- 05:51and
- 05:53typically place the, the compliance
- 05:55balloon. And by the way,
- 05:58we initially borrowed much of
- 06:00this tool kit from the,
- 06:02from, the protein block here,
- 06:04kyphoplasty
- 06:05set. So it's essentially much
- 06:06of the same tool. So
- 06:08with the balloon, we pushed
- 06:09away some of that scar
- 06:11to destroy super tissue
- 06:13to create a central cavity
- 06:15because, believe it or not,
- 06:16as I know,
- 06:18even with litig lesions, there's
- 06:19still it's not an empty
- 06:21space, obviously. It's not entirely
- 06:23a a hole in the
- 06:24bone. There's still some matrix
- 06:25there whether it's mucinous, sigma,
- 06:27something else. So once we
- 06:29have ablated, we push that
- 06:30tissue out of the way
- 06:31to create a a central
- 06:33pocket
- 06:34that'll allow us to now
- 06:35inject bone cement
- 06:37to help with reinforcement.
- 06:40And now that we once
- 06:41we have, cement deposited,
- 06:44we drill the crew through
- 06:46it into their final resting
- 06:47position. Now we also have
- 06:49access to,
- 06:50screws that have side holes
- 06:52along their lines. So now
- 06:53we can actually advance the
- 06:55screw into their,
- 06:56let's say, final,
- 06:58resting position
- 06:59before we inject cement.
- 07:01And once we inject cement,
- 07:02we,
- 07:04usually within about twenty minutes
- 07:06of the time when we
- 07:07mix up the cement.
- 07:09Within twenty minutes minutes, that
- 07:10cement is rock solid and
- 07:12the construct
- 07:13is stable.
- 07:14We come out,
- 07:16close the tiny little incisions,
- 07:18the features, staples, etcetera, put
- 07:20little bandages on, patient goes
- 07:22to recovery, and typically,
- 07:24most of the time, goes
- 07:26home the, the same night.
- 07:28So that's the, the long
- 07:29and short of the, the
- 07:30procedure. So I'll turn it
- 07:31over back to doctor Lima.
- 07:33Thank you so much. So
- 07:35this, technique was developed
- 07:37at Yale,
- 07:38and the patient's actually flying
- 07:40in.
- 07:41And, patients go somewhere the
- 07:42same day.
- 07:44So we are provide,
- 07:46really care. We are providing
- 07:48care for medical oncologist
- 07:50so that oncologist can give
- 07:52chemotherapy the next day without
- 07:55waiting two or three weeks.
- 07:57That used to be the
- 07:57case after open surgery.
- 08:00So we see patients in
- 08:02Trumbull, New Haven,
- 08:04and also Stanford,
- 08:05and we are well
- 08:07we'll be glad to assist
- 08:09to your medical oncology care.
- 08:13So this is another example,
- 08:14three year breast cancer patients.
- 08:18Patient couldn't walk. This is
- 08:19a de novo diagnosis of
- 08:20a stage four,
- 08:22and we did
- 08:24our,
- 08:25minimally invasive procedure.
- 08:27And she was able to
- 08:29emulate
- 08:30the next day,
- 08:32and she sustained,
- 08:33for four years.
- 08:36This is another case, same
- 08:38breast cancer patient.
- 08:40Patient is now five year
- 08:43out of the procedure.
- 08:45And nowadays,
- 08:47all of you made a
- 08:47miracle.
- 08:48Cancers are manageable disease,
- 08:51and we can facilitate
- 08:53your oncological
- 08:55care.
- 08:56Even though this is a
- 08:57So another patient with a
- 08:58renal cell cancer, you can
- 09:00see hypervascularity,
- 09:02and the patient can go
- 09:03home on the same day.
- 09:05Can you get out of
- 09:05the bed? This is the
- 09:07movie
- 09:07at the recovery rooms.
- 09:10So three or four hours
- 09:11later,
- 09:12the one hour procedure,
- 09:15the patient really worked with
- 09:17all of them.
- 09:19So the problem is my
- 09:20throat can And this can
- 09:21be also very powerful for
- 09:23multiple lesions.
- 09:24Patient had a bilateral as
- 09:26couple of fractures,
- 09:28right to femoral lesions, left
- 09:29to femoral neck fracture,
- 09:31everything in one stage, and
- 09:33the patient went home on
- 09:35the same day.
- 09:38Patient also had a very,
- 09:39radiation and the chemo refractory
- 09:42had just a cell phone
- 09:44with
- 09:45the spine and the left
- 09:46hip lesion.
- 09:47We were able to address
- 09:49both,
- 09:50spine and hip
- 09:52on the one anesthesia,
- 09:54and patient was able to
- 09:56ambulate right away.
- 10:00Another case of breast cancer
- 10:02after five years.
- 10:04The breast cancer relapsed,
- 10:06and, unfortunately,
- 10:07the bone bone quality became
- 10:09very poor.
- 10:11We did the reconstruction,
- 10:12and the patient is still
- 10:13alive.
- 10:16So in summary,
- 10:18we will be very happy
- 10:19to provide
- 10:21a minimally invasive procedure
- 10:23for your effective oncology care
- 10:26without interruption.
- 10:27And I thank you so
- 10:28much for listening, and I
- 10:30will stop here. And if
- 10:31there are any questions, doctor
- 10:33Latician,
- 10:33I can answer any questions.
- 10:35Thank you.
- 10:39That's great,
- 10:40Francis.
- 10:42Really excellent
- 10:44demonstration of what you and,
- 10:46Igor can do. So thank
- 10:47you for
- 10:49sharing those.
- 10:50I
- 10:52don't see anything in the
- 10:54chat
- 10:55right now, but,
- 10:58if there are any, then
- 10:59I think Emily can,
- 11:02send them to you.
- 11:04But in the meantime, while
- 11:06people are thinking of questions,
- 11:08I'll just move on
- 11:10to,
- 11:12the the next part of
- 11:14the slide,
- 11:15of the talk.
- 11:17And if I can figure
- 11:19out how to share my
- 11:23slide.
- 11:30I
- 11:42apologize.
- 11:42Technology is not my best
- 11:44friend.
- 11:46Is that can you see
- 11:48the slides now?
- 11:52I can see that. Yes.
- 11:53Oh, great.
- 11:55So
- 11:56thank you, doctor Ladich and
- 11:58doctor Lee for starting this
- 12:00seminar, and
- 12:01I'm also very proud to
- 12:03be a part of such
- 12:05a great
- 12:06team that involves also doctor
- 12:08Alino as well, who should
- 12:10be hopefully joining us fairly
- 12:12soon.
- 12:14So we've heard about some
- 12:15of the newer surgical techniques
- 12:17from doctor Lee and doctor
- 12:19Laddich.
- 12:21I'll spend the rest of
- 12:22the time focusing
- 12:24on soft tissue and
- 12:27bone sarcomas.
- 12:29Now the WHO
- 12:30has classified
- 12:31soft tissue and bone
- 12:33tumors
- 12:35into four different categories. Many
- 12:37of you will be familiar
- 12:38with benign lesions such as
- 12:41lipomas
- 12:42and malignant lesions,
- 12:44which include sarcomas.
- 12:46But there are also two
- 12:48other categories,
- 12:50and these
- 12:51include intermediate grade tumors that
- 12:53are rarely metastasizing.
- 12:56And I put one example
- 12:58as a giant cell tumor
- 13:00and intermediate grade tumors
- 13:02that are locally aggressive.
- 13:05And these include
- 13:07something I'm gonna spend a
- 13:08little more time on, which
- 13:09is desmoid tumors.
- 13:13The management of soft tissue
- 13:15and bone tumors in general
- 13:18is similar to many of
- 13:19the malignancies
- 13:20that we see in oncology.
- 13:22So the main treatment
- 13:24historically has been surgery.
- 13:27But these days,
- 13:29as just like you heard
- 13:30from doctor Lee and doctor
- 13:31Ladich,
- 13:33other techniques have been used
- 13:34because surgery can be very
- 13:36morbid or it might delay
- 13:37other treatments.
- 13:39So various ablative techniques similar
- 13:42to what you've just seen
- 13:43have been tried
- 13:45as well
- 13:46as radiotherapy
- 13:48and medical management.
- 13:49So this includes chemotherapy,
- 13:52targeted therapy,
- 13:53and immunotherapy.
- 13:57So my first case is
- 13:58actually a case of a
- 13:59patient with a desmoid tumor.
- 14:01This is also
- 14:03known as
- 14:04a
- 14:05an aggressive fibromatosis.
- 14:07It goes by many different
- 14:08names.
- 14:10This is a thirty nine
- 14:11year old woman
- 14:13who, in September last year,
- 14:15noted
- 14:16a lump in the right
- 14:17axilla.
- 14:18The following month,
- 14:20she had an ultrasound which
- 14:22confirmed a mass and measured
- 14:24it at six point nine
- 14:25by three by five centimeters.
- 14:29This was confirmed on an
- 14:30MRI scan,
- 14:32which suggested it was a
- 14:33little bit larger, seven point
- 14:35nine by five point two
- 14:37by four point eight centimeters.
- 14:40And an ultrasound guided biopsy
- 14:43showed pathological
- 14:44features
- 14:45consistent with a desmoid tumor.
- 14:50So I don't know if,
- 14:51Igor, if you're still
- 14:53able to talk, but, I
- 14:55I don't know if you
- 14:56can take us through this
- 14:58MRI picture.
- 15:01Yes. I am I am
- 15:02I am here. Okay.
- 15:04So
- 15:05we see this, irregular. If
- 15:07if you were looking at
- 15:08an X-ray, I suppose one
- 15:10could almost call it a
- 15:11spiculated,
- 15:12lesion,
- 15:13which is fairly characteristic,
- 15:16appearance for a lot of
- 15:17these,
- 15:19desmoid
- 15:20and aggressive fibro motility.
- 15:22They're typically not very well
- 15:25circumscribed. They they tend to
- 15:26kind of invaginate
- 15:27themselves to all sorts of
- 15:29tissue planes, which is what
- 15:30sometimes makes them a challenge
- 15:32to, surgically respect for instance.
- 15:34It's it's not always easy
- 15:36to get very clean margins
- 15:38because they are,
- 15:39they're they're so easy regular,
- 15:42jagged almost. And,
- 15:44you can see this
- 15:46fairly
- 15:47typical appearance of it being
- 15:48very
- 15:49white,
- 15:50on, this
- 15:53sequence or contrast enhanced sequence.
- 15:54Either way, they they tend
- 15:56to really light up, quite
- 15:58obviously.
- 16:00And you can see them,
- 16:02the the prongs of the
- 16:04lesion kind of,
- 16:06sticking into various tissue planes
- 16:08in between muscles,
- 16:10and and and tendons and
- 16:12fat planes.
- 16:14So,
- 16:15this is precisely, like I
- 16:16said, what what causes them
- 16:18to be a
- 16:19a bit of a surgical
- 16:21dilemma, particularly in this area.
- 16:23Now I can't see on
- 16:24this one sequence exactly how
- 16:26close the brachial plexus is,
- 16:28but, you know, in the
- 16:29axilla, that
- 16:31that can always be a
- 16:32problem, from a management standpoint
- 16:35to try to peel away
- 16:36all these,
- 16:38prongs of the lesion away.
- 16:40But,
- 16:41Jen, this is pretty much
- 16:42the classical appearance of the
- 16:44lesion.
- 16:45Right. Thank you. And
- 16:47and, actually, it's exactly as
- 16:49you said. She
- 16:50first saw doctor Alino, and
- 16:52she pretty much
- 16:53said word for word what
- 16:55you said. Because of its
- 16:56location
- 16:57near the brachial plexus, it
- 16:59would have made surgery
- 17:01very challenging to try and
- 17:02get all of this tumor
- 17:04out.
- 17:05So desoid tumors are quite
- 17:07rare. They affect somewhere between
- 17:10three and six
- 17:11cases
- 17:12per million population
- 17:14every
- 17:16year. But
- 17:17and this, accounts for about
- 17:19fifteen hundred cases a year
- 17:21in this country.
- 17:23However, most patients do not
- 17:25die of their disease.
- 17:27So there are many, many
- 17:28more patients living with desmoid
- 17:30tumors,
- 17:31and this is why the
- 17:32prevalence is so much higher.
- 17:35The median age, it's a
- 17:37young person's disease, so we
- 17:40tend to see cancer in
- 17:42older populations. But desmoid tumors
- 17:44tend to have a median
- 17:45age of twenty to forty
- 17:47four, but it is quite
- 17:48variable. I have seen patients
- 17:50who are much older, and
- 17:51we've also seen desmoid tumors
- 17:53in children.
- 17:55Most desmoid tumors are sporadic,
- 17:58but there
- 17:59are some that are associated,
- 18:00as many of you will
- 18:02know,
- 18:03with the FAP gene or
- 18:04familial adenomatous
- 18:06polyposis gene.
- 18:10Desmoid tumors can occur anywhere
- 18:12in the body as shown
- 18:14on this particular slide.
- 18:16There is a slight
- 18:17increase in incidence in the
- 18:20intra abdominal or abdominal
- 18:22wall area,
- 18:24but their symptoms
- 18:25really depend on where the
- 18:27tumors are. As as, again,
- 18:29you can imagine if there's
- 18:30a big mass somewhere,
- 18:32it's gonna cause symptoms related
- 18:34to the size of the
- 18:35mass. So this can be
- 18:37trouble breathing if it's in
- 18:38the chest wall,
- 18:40abdominal distension if it's in
- 18:41the abdomen,
- 18:43and masses or restricted mobility
- 18:46if it's in the extremities.
- 18:49Over the last few decades,
- 18:51a lot of work has
- 18:52been done, however, into what
- 18:54causes
- 18:55desmoid tumors.
- 18:56And one of the first
- 18:57things that was realized is
- 18:59it seems to have
- 19:01an effect
- 19:02be more,
- 19:06prominent
- 19:07in patients who have hypereestrogenic
- 19:09states.
- 19:11And this can include recent
- 19:12pregnancies
- 19:14as well as women more
- 19:15than men.
- 19:17It actually led to one
- 19:19of the first
- 19:20medical treatments being tried
- 19:22as being tamoxifen,
- 19:24which is an estrogen receptor
- 19:26modifier
- 19:27that we use to treat
- 19:28breast cancer.
- 19:30It wasn't
- 19:31very successful, but we still
- 19:33very occasionally use that medication
- 19:35today.
- 19:37Similarly,
- 19:38some desmoid tumors occurred at
- 19:40the site of prior surgery
- 19:42or prior trauma, suggesting that
- 19:45it was that traumatic event
- 19:47that ended up causing the
- 19:49tumor.
- 19:52Most of us get our
- 19:53treatment guidelines from something called
- 19:55the NCCN,
- 19:56which is a national guideline
- 19:58for treating
- 19:59every cancer.
- 20:00And the treatment guidelines for
- 20:02Desmoid tumors have changed
- 20:04extensively
- 20:06over the last few decades.
- 20:09What we suggest these days
- 20:10is if you have a
- 20:12patient with a desmoid tumor,
- 20:14they should be
- 20:16evaluated by a multidisciplinary
- 20:18team such as the one
- 20:20we have here at Yale.
- 20:22This way we can decide
- 20:24whether we should go with
- 20:25the standard
- 20:27first line treatment, which is
- 20:29actually surveillance,
- 20:31or whether they need any
- 20:32of our other techniques that
- 20:34have been mentioned in this
- 20:35talk.
- 20:38So as usual for any
- 20:41medical condition, we need to
- 20:42do a good history and
- 20:44fit and physical.
- 20:45And this is really for
- 20:46patients who have just been
- 20:48diagnosed to see whether they
- 20:49need further workup
- 20:52for familial adenomatous
- 20:54polyposis.
- 20:55Because if they do have
- 20:57that condition, especially if they're
- 20:58very young,
- 21:00then they'll need much more
- 21:02intense screening for colorectal cancer
- 21:05as shown on this particular
- 21:07slide.
- 21:08Otherwise,
- 21:09we need to do surveillance
- 21:10imaging
- 21:11to see whether the tumors
- 21:13are staying the same,
- 21:15but whether they're growing, or
- 21:17whether they're even regressing.
- 21:22So because some of the
- 21:24tumors can regress, as shown
- 21:26on this particular slide, over
- 21:28a quarter, so twenty eight
- 21:29percent,
- 21:31that's why we tend to
- 21:32use surveillance
- 21:33as the first line of
- 21:34treatment.
- 21:36A further thirty percent will
- 21:37be stable. So if they're
- 21:38not bothering the patient, if
- 21:40it was, for instance, just
- 21:42picked up on another imaging
- 21:43technique,
- 21:45then we would still just
- 21:46do surveillance
- 21:47to just follow them
- 21:49and be ready to start
- 21:51treatment if needed.
- 21:53About forty two percent, however,
- 21:55will have progressive disease and
- 21:57probably
- 21:58symptomatic disease.
- 22:00For those patients in the
- 22:01past, we used to do
- 22:03surgery. But as doctor Ladich
- 22:05mentioned,
- 22:06this can often be a
- 22:07very morbid procedure
- 22:09where patients
- 22:11will need a very, very
- 22:12big operation to remove a
- 22:14relatively
- 22:15small tumor.
- 22:18Over the past few years,
- 22:20doctor Ladich and doctor Lee
- 22:22have really
- 22:23pioneered the use of interventional
- 22:26techniques. And I know
- 22:29I've shared quite a few
- 22:30patients with doctor Lavich.
- 22:33And the ablative techniques
- 22:36for desmoid tumors,
- 22:38I would say,
- 22:39are they similar to what
- 22:41you just described on the
- 22:42first few slides, or are
- 22:44there any big differences
- 22:47from how you would treat
- 22:48a desmoid tumor as a
- 22:51It's it's all thermal ablation.
- 22:53However,
- 22:54like I mentioned or unlike
- 22:55in, the acetababulum,
- 22:57especially if we're looking to
- 22:59put in cement, I prefer
- 23:00to use
- 23:02e double h
- 23:07Okay. Sorry. You were cutting
- 23:09out a little bit there.
- 23:14Maybe we can come back
- 23:16to you
- 23:17when you're in a better
- 23:18area.
- 23:21But, otherwise, we do have
- 23:22new medical therapists, and the
- 23:24medical therapist
- 23:26sorry. Go ahead, Igor. Can
- 23:27you hear us? It? I
- 23:28can hear you better. Said,
- 23:29is the line choppy?
- 23:31Got it. I'm sorry. So,
- 23:32typically,
- 23:33with desmoids, we use cryoablation
- 23:36rather than a a heat
- 23:38ablation.
- 23:39And that is primarily
- 23:41because on CT, which is
- 23:43what we use for guidance,
- 23:45we can use we can
- 23:46see our ablation zones very
- 23:48nicely.
- 23:49We see these, so called
- 23:51ice balls
- 23:52almost perfectly delineating,
- 23:54the, the margins of the
- 23:56tumor. Whereas with heat ablation,
- 23:58typically, let's say, with
- 24:00sarcomas, we would use
- 24:02microwave ablation
- 24:04for larger lesions. You do
- 24:06not see that margin
- 24:07on imaging at least immediately.
- 24:10You can anticipate it, but
- 24:11you don't know exactly where
- 24:12it is. Where where with
- 24:13cryo, you can see exactly
- 24:15the margin of the ice
- 24:16fall. So that's one of
- 24:18the advantages and that's the
- 24:20preferred modality for Desmos.
- 24:23That's great. And then I
- 24:24know you mentioned the brachial
- 24:26plexus was a concern for
- 24:28surgery. So how would you
- 24:30get around that with doing
- 24:32ablation, or would you
- 24:33refer them to me for
- 24:34medical therapy?
- 24:37So our preferred option would
- 24:38be, obviously, do no harm
- 24:40or do least harm first.
- 24:42So one would certainly start
- 24:43with,
- 24:44systemic therapy first, see how
- 24:46the patient responds.
- 24:51The pathology, obviously, will be
- 24:53for the treatment,
- 24:56plays out.
- 24:58If an ablation is still
- 25:00needed, one can still do
- 25:01stage the treatment to maybe
- 25:03manage,
- 25:04let's say, ninety percent of
- 25:05the lesion if we can't
- 25:06get the the entirety of
- 25:08it.
- 25:09But in many cases, we
- 25:10can do some of these,
- 25:12advanced,
- 25:13ablations using,
- 25:15neuro monitoring at the same
- 25:17time so we can tell
- 25:18in real time if we
- 25:19are causing any damage,
- 25:22to the plexus and and
- 25:23just gonna back off. But
- 25:25our preference will be to
- 25:26go with systemic treatment first
- 25:28to see if that perhaps,
- 25:31manages to a strength delusion
- 25:33or at least keep it
- 25:34at bay.
- 25:36Great. Thank you.
- 25:38And that brings us into
- 25:39the medical therapist. So there
- 25:42have been a few advances
- 25:43in the last few decades,
- 25:46and they have moved earlier
- 25:47in the treatment. So I
- 25:49would say now we tend
- 25:50to get most of our
- 25:51referrals
- 25:53from orthopedic surgeons who have
- 25:55seen these desmoid tumors.
- 25:57They know that there's medications
- 25:59available, and they'll send them
- 26:01for surveillance
- 26:03and possible,
- 26:04medical treatment to me before
- 26:07they attempt any surgery.
- 26:10And we used to use
- 26:11radiation a lot
- 26:13for
- 26:14desmoid tumors. I would have
- 26:15to say,
- 26:16I don't think I've seen
- 26:18radiation being used for desmoid
- 26:20tumors
- 26:21in the last five years.
- 26:23It just has fallen out
- 26:24of favor. And the main
- 26:26reason for that is,
- 26:27as I mentioned
- 26:29earlier,
- 26:30these patients don't tend to
- 26:32die of their disease. This
- 26:34can be a very morbid
- 26:35disease. They can have a
- 26:36lot of pain,
- 26:37but they live for as
- 26:38long as if they didn't
- 26:40have the desmoid tumor,
- 26:42which means if you're giving
- 26:43radiation
- 26:44or even doing a lot
- 26:45of CAT scans, you're exposing
- 26:47the patient
- 26:49to potentially
- 26:50a treatment
- 26:52that may result in a
- 26:53second malignancy. And that's the
- 26:55last thing we want to
- 26:56do
- 26:57is to take someone who
- 26:58has a an intermediate
- 26:59tumor
- 27:01and then give them a
- 27:02more malignant tumor. And so
- 27:04we have to be careful
- 27:05with our imaging techniques. We
- 27:07tend to use MRIs or
- 27:08ultrasounds
- 27:09to follow these patients rather
- 27:11than CAT scans,
- 27:12and we save radiation
- 27:14for patients who really have
- 27:16failed everything else.
- 27:21So one of the medical
- 27:23treatments that
- 27:25we have
- 27:28seen over the past few
- 27:29years
- 27:30is something called nirogacastat
- 27:34or
- 27:35OXIVIO.
- 27:36And I can say it
- 27:37because I've had
- 27:38five years of practice saying
- 27:40it, but like most of
- 27:41our oncology medicines, they don't
- 27:43exactly roll off the tongue.
- 27:45But this is a medication
- 27:47that's called a gamma secretase
- 27:49inhibitor,
- 27:50and then it inhibits
- 27:52some of the genetic
- 27:54changes that occur in desmoid
- 27:56tumors, either
- 27:58related to the FAP gene
- 28:00or the beta catenin gene.
- 28:02That's one of the other
- 28:03genes that can be mutated
- 28:05in this disease.
- 28:08So
- 28:09when this new medication
- 28:11was developed
- 28:12and they realized it had
- 28:14a lot of activity in
- 28:15the very early trials,
- 28:17they decided to test it
- 28:19in what we call a
- 28:20phase three trial. So this
- 28:21is a trial
- 28:22where a new medication
- 28:24is tested
- 28:26against the standard of care.
- 28:27Now the standard of care
- 28:29for desmoid tumors is actually
- 28:31surveillance.
- 28:33So it was tested in
- 28:34this study against placebo.
- 28:37They had to have
- 28:38they patients had to have
- 28:40a desmoid tumor that was
- 28:41histologically
- 28:42confirmed.
- 28:43They had to be progressing
- 28:45after
- 28:46one line of therapy
- 28:49or refractory
- 28:51to more than one line
- 28:52of therapy
- 28:53and had and if they
- 28:55would have felt that if
- 28:56continued
- 28:57progression,
- 28:58they would have an immediate
- 28:59significant,
- 29:02they wouldn't have an immediate
- 29:03significant risk,
- 29:06if they had to wait
- 29:07if they were on the
- 29:08placebo arm.
- 29:10They did need biopsy
- 29:12to confirm the disease so
- 29:14that everyone had the same
- 29:15disease going into the trial,
- 29:17and they had to have
- 29:18what we call a good
- 29:19performance status, which means
- 29:21they were able to do
- 29:23all of their activities
- 29:25without being in bed most
- 29:26of the day or in
- 29:27hospital or anything like that.
- 29:31They also had to have
- 29:32adequate
- 29:33organ and bone marrow function.
- 29:36These medications, remember, had only
- 29:38been tested on a few
- 29:39patients before
- 29:41being tested in this big
- 29:42clinical trial, so we didn't
- 29:44know how it would affect
- 29:46patients in terms of side
- 29:48effects
- 29:48or in terms of some
- 29:50of their blood tests.
- 29:52The primary endpoint was progression
- 29:54free survival. How long did
- 29:56it keep the disease
- 29:57as it was or even
- 29:59keep it at a smaller
- 30:01size?
- 30:02And the secondary
- 30:03response rates included objective response,
- 30:06so how small
- 30:08could it make the cancer
- 30:09get or the tumor get,
- 30:11and also patient reported outcomes.
- 30:14So if they had a
- 30:14lot of pain to start
- 30:16off with,
- 30:17did this medication make them
- 30:19feel overall better despite any
- 30:21side effects?
- 30:23So patients were randomly assigned
- 30:26to receive this medication, nirogacastat,
- 30:29a hundred and fifty milligrams
- 30:31twice a day
- 30:32or a placebo, a similar
- 30:35appearing placebo
- 30:36twice a day.
- 30:37If they did well on
- 30:38the medication, they were able
- 30:40to continue it.
- 30:41If they got the placebo
- 30:43but progressed,
- 30:45they were able to cross
- 30:46over to get this new
- 30:47medication.
- 30:49All patients had their tumors
- 30:52measured using a standard radiological
- 30:55technique called recist,
- 30:58and they had patient reported
- 31:00outcomes very accurately measured
- 31:03as well as looking at
- 31:05the safety of the medication.
- 31:09In this study, as you
- 31:11can see, the majority of
- 31:13patients had
- 31:14disease that was outside the
- 31:16abdomen, unlike that particular
- 31:19slide that I've mentioned before
- 31:21for the general population.
- 31:25Patients either had
- 31:27single
- 31:28sites of disease or they
- 31:29were multifocal
- 31:31disease.
- 31:32The size of these tumors
- 31:34was quite large. So in
- 31:35the treatment arm, it was
- 31:37nine point one centimeters.
- 31:40And in the placebo arm,
- 31:41it was eleven centimeters.
- 31:44A minority of patients, less
- 31:46than twenty percent, had familial
- 31:48adenomatous polyposis.
- 31:51And these were the genes
- 31:52that were mutated.
- 31:54And you can see here
- 31:56the APC gene
- 31:58and the beta catenin gene.
- 32:00Some patients had no
- 32:02identified mutations.
- 32:05Many patients had already had
- 32:07quite a few treatments in
- 32:09some cases
- 32:10up to fourteen lines of
- 32:12prior treatment.
- 32:14And these are some of
- 32:15the treatments that they received.
- 32:19A vast,
- 32:21well, a a significant minority,
- 32:23I should say, of patients
- 32:25had significant pain
- 32:27at the time of enrollment
- 32:28in this particular trial.
- 32:31We were one of the
- 32:31sites for this trial, and
- 32:33it was very exciting
- 32:34being on a medication that
- 32:37could be given to a
- 32:38disease that previously had no
- 32:41FDA approved treatment.
- 32:43And you can see that
- 32:44there was a significant
- 32:45difference in progression free survival
- 32:48on this particular graph.
- 32:50There's a wide separation of
- 32:52the curves between placebo
- 32:54and the study medication.
- 32:58And this is a a
- 32:59graph that we use a
- 33:00lot in oncology called a
- 33:01waterfall
- 33:03plot. Basically, where you see
- 33:04the zero line,
- 33:06that's the size of the
- 33:07tumor of each individual patient.
- 33:09Each bar is an individual
- 33:11patient.
- 33:12Anything that's going above the
- 33:14line means the tumors are
- 33:15growing,
- 33:16and anything below the line
- 33:18means the tumors are responding
- 33:20to treatment.
- 33:21And you can see on
- 33:23this first graph,
- 33:24the majority of patients, the
- 33:26tumors are getting smaller.
- 33:28And this dotted line is
- 33:30a thirty percent smaller line,
- 33:32and that's
- 33:33our arbitrary definition of a
- 33:35partial response.
- 33:37So
- 33:38over forty almost forty percent
- 33:40of patients had at least
- 33:42a partial response,
- 33:44and some of them even
- 33:45had a complete response. That's
- 33:46where when we do a
- 33:48follow-up scan, there's no evidence
- 33:50of disease on that scan.
- 33:52So this was really exciting
- 33:55stuff for a desmoid tumor.
- 33:58For the placebo group,
- 34:00again, some patients will have
- 34:02regression of disease without any
- 34:04treatment, and you can see
- 34:05that here.
- 34:07And others had progression of
- 34:08disease. And as I said,
- 34:09they were allowed to cross
- 34:11over
- 34:12and join the neurogastat
- 34:14group.
- 34:17So the nonmalignant
- 34:20soft tissues tumors,
- 34:22which desmoid tumor is one
- 34:24of them, they can either
- 34:25be totally benign,
- 34:27like lipomas,
- 34:30or intermediate
- 34:31tumors,
- 34:32such as desmoid and giant
- 34:34cell tumors.
- 34:36Usually, survival is not affected
- 34:40by these particular types of
- 34:42tumors, so you have to
- 34:43be very careful about the
- 34:44treatments you give.
- 34:46You don't want to give
- 34:47chemotherapies
- 34:48or radiation
- 34:49necessarily,
- 34:50which might have a risk
- 34:52of secondary
- 34:53complications
- 34:54down the line as these
- 34:55patients can live for many
- 34:57years.
- 34:58Similarly, when you're doing surveillance,
- 35:00you should opt
- 35:02for imaging techniques such as
- 35:04ultrasound or MRI
- 35:06rather than
- 35:08CT scans.
- 35:09But there are newer medications,
- 35:11one of which I've mentioned,
- 35:13Oxivio or Niragakastat,
- 35:16and newer techniques available
- 35:18for more advanced symptomatic
- 35:21cases.
- 35:27So that's the benign and
- 35:29intermediate
- 35:30grade.
- 35:31And I'm going to finally
- 35:33use the last part of
- 35:34the talk
- 35:35to go over
- 35:37sarcomas, which are malignant
- 35:39tumors.
- 35:40Sarcomas can be divided into
- 35:42two groups. They're either bone
- 35:44sarcomas,
- 35:46which you've seen some pictures
- 35:48on
- 35:49doctor Lee's slides,
- 35:52or soft tissue sarcomas.
- 35:54And soft tissue sarcomas are
- 35:56the vast majority, so eighty
- 35:58percent of all sarcomas.
- 36:01There are over fifty subtypes
- 36:04of sarcomas,
- 36:06and this is why it's
- 36:07often very difficult for physicians,
- 36:10even for
- 36:11our oncology fellows, to
- 36:13to really learn about these
- 36:15disease just because there's so
- 36:16many of them,
- 36:18and they're quite rare. So
- 36:20we see about seventeen thousand
- 36:23new sarcomas a year in
- 36:25the whole country,
- 36:26whereas we see three hundred
- 36:28thousand new breast cancers a
- 36:29year. So it's
- 36:31unless you're dealing with these
- 36:33patients every day like the
- 36:35four of us do,
- 36:36then it's hard to really
- 36:38understand
- 36:39the nuances of diagnosis and
- 36:41treatment.
- 36:43Once again, though, for sarcomas,
- 36:46surgery is the mainstay
- 36:48of treatment.
- 36:50It can be augmented
- 36:52with the use of radiation
- 36:53for soft tissue sarcomas
- 36:55and chemotherapy
- 36:57for bone sarcomas.
- 36:59Bone sarcomas tend not to
- 37:00be sensitive
- 37:02to radiation.
- 37:04There is a role for
- 37:05chemotherapy
- 37:06also after surgery in very
- 37:08large high grade
- 37:10sarcomas.
- 37:11So
- 37:12it's something we should think
- 37:14about for the more aggressive
- 37:15lesions.
- 37:17And for metastatic cases
- 37:19and some large tumors,
- 37:21we would think about giving
- 37:23targeted therapy
- 37:25or immunotherapy.
- 37:29So I'm gonna,
- 37:31continue with another slide. Hopefully,
- 37:33doctor Alino will
- 37:35be able to join
- 37:38with,
- 37:39some comments. This was a
- 37:41patient, again, I shared with
- 37:42her.
- 37:43This is a sixty nine
- 37:45year old man
- 37:47who, back in August last
- 37:49year, presented
- 37:51to his primary physician
- 37:53with a two week history
- 37:55of bilateral lower extremity edema
- 37:58on the right
- 37:59as opposed to the left.
- 38:03But at the same time,
- 38:04he had an ultrasound. The
- 38:06primary physician quite rightly
- 38:08was worried about a DBT,
- 38:11But the ultrasound didn't show
- 38:13a DVT.
- 38:14But
- 38:15very astutely,
- 38:17the primary care physician followed
- 38:19this up with a CAT
- 38:20scan of the abdomen and
- 38:21pelvis.
- 38:22And this showed a very
- 38:24large mass. You can see
- 38:25it's seventeen by three
- 38:27seventeen point three by nineteen
- 38:29point one
- 38:30by twenty three centimeters,
- 38:33retroperitoneal,
- 38:34so in the abdomen,
- 38:36with extremely
- 38:37heterogeneous
- 38:38internal components. Now this is
- 38:40a sign
- 38:41of a very
- 38:43rapidly growing tumor when it
- 38:45doesn't look the same all
- 38:46the way through.
- 38:47Sometimes we'll see these sarcomas
- 38:50that
- 38:51patients present to us with
- 38:53a huge tumor, but when
- 38:54you ask them, they'll say,
- 38:55oh, yes. I've had this
- 38:56mass. It's It's been growing
- 38:58a little bit over the
- 38:59past twenty years, and it
- 39:00actually
- 39:01is a much more low
- 39:02grade, often a liposarcoma.
- 39:07In his case, however, he
- 39:08had obstruction of the right
- 39:10ureter
- 39:11with right hydronephrosis,
- 39:14and an ultrasound guided biopsy
- 39:17of the retroperitoneal
- 39:19mass was
- 39:20performed.
- 39:22The pathology
- 39:23was initially read
- 39:26as undifferentiated
- 39:27sarcoma,
- 39:28but now we have better
- 39:29techniques in pathology to
- 39:32actually place it in one
- 39:33of those individual fifty categories.
- 39:37And if they have this
- 39:38gene called MDM two
- 39:41with certain other features,
- 39:43then we call it a
- 39:44dedifferentiated
- 39:45liposarcoma.
- 39:49So this is some of
- 39:50his,
- 39:52imaging.
- 39:53And, again, I don't see
- 39:54Kelly on the line, so
- 39:56I will do my best
- 39:58in my nonradiology
- 40:02technique to to say, well,
- 40:04this is pretty obvious. This
- 40:06is a very large mass,
- 40:08and this is what they
- 40:09mean by
- 40:10the heterogeneous
- 40:11appearance in the abdomen.
- 40:14So areas that are lighter
- 40:16and areas that are darker.
- 40:17These darker areas
- 40:19probably represent necrosis.
- 40:21And if you see a
- 40:22lot of necrosis
- 40:23on a sarcoma specimen,
- 40:26then that immediately pushes its
- 40:28grade up. We use
- 40:30necrosis, mitosis,
- 40:31and the type of sarcoma
- 40:33to determine the grade of
- 40:35the lesion.
- 40:36And when staging cancers,
- 40:38many of you will have
- 40:39heard of the TNM staging
- 40:42system, where t is the
- 40:43size of the tumor and
- 40:44n is nodes, m is
- 40:46metastasis.
- 40:48But sarcomas have a fourth
- 40:50component, which is the grade.
- 40:52And it's so important
- 40:54that a tumor that's very
- 40:55small
- 40:57yet has a very high
- 40:59grade can be a stage
- 41:00three.
- 41:01Whereas if this was a
- 41:02low grade tumor, it would
- 41:04actually still only be a
- 41:05stage one.
- 41:06So that's how important grade
- 41:08is
- 41:09because it has such a
- 41:11key effect
- 41:12on the prognosis.
- 41:15So he underwent
- 41:17resection of the retroperitoneal
- 41:19tumor on block
- 41:21with the right adrenal band,
- 41:23the kidney,
- 41:24the IVC,
- 41:26the common iliac artery and
- 41:28vein, and reconstruction
- 41:30with vascular surgery.
- 41:31It was a huge operation.
- 41:33I'm so glad
- 41:34doctor Alino was there to
- 41:36do it because she's used
- 41:37to doing these big operations.
- 41:39He needed thirty one units
- 41:41of packed red blood cells,
- 41:43nineteen units of FFP,
- 41:46three units of cryo, and
- 41:47two
- 41:48packs of platelets.
- 41:50And it involved three different
- 41:52surgical teams.
- 41:54And luckily, he did so
- 41:56well that he had an
- 41:57uneventful
- 41:58recovery.
- 41:59He was able to get
- 42:00home for the holidays,
- 42:02but unfortunately
- 42:03ended up with recurrent disease,
- 42:05including lung and retroperitoneal
- 42:08metastases.
- 42:09And I'm currently treating him
- 42:11for the metastatic disease.
- 42:14He technically
- 42:15would have been eligible for
- 42:17one of our clinical trials,
- 42:19however,
- 42:20and this is the schema
- 42:21for the trial. Basically,
- 42:23what we know with these
- 42:24very large
- 42:26retroperitoneal
- 42:27sarcomas
- 42:28is that
- 42:29surgery is a good treatment
- 42:31for them when they're very
- 42:32small, but the larger they
- 42:34get,
- 42:35the more likely they are
- 42:36to come back.
- 42:38So,
- 42:39historically,
- 42:40adding
- 42:41chemotherapy
- 42:42or radiation to these tumors
- 42:45has not made much of
- 42:46a difference in terms of
- 42:48survival.
- 42:49In fact,
- 42:50radiation was tested in a
- 42:51very similar trial called the
- 42:53STRAS
- 42:54one
- 42:55trial, where just like here,
- 42:56patients were randomized to either
- 42:58get surgery alone
- 43:00or radiation
- 43:01followed by surgery.
- 43:03And this was a negative
- 43:04trial, the previous trial, the
- 43:06STRAS one trial.
- 43:08It ended up saying that
- 43:09radiation did not improve survival.
- 43:12In fact,
- 43:13in some cases,
- 43:15it was even detrimental
- 43:17to get radiation plus surgery.
- 43:19There were a couple of
- 43:20histologies,
- 43:21however,
- 43:22where it seemed like there
- 43:23may be a trend towards
- 43:25radiation being beneficial.
- 43:27But during that time, the
- 43:29chemotherapies
- 43:29that we were using
- 43:31and the supportive care that
- 43:33we were using
- 43:34has improved significantly.
- 43:37So that
- 43:39they decided to look at
- 43:40this question again. If we
- 43:42give chemotherapy
- 43:43upfront
- 43:44followed by surgery, is it
- 43:46any better than surgery alone?
- 43:49And they this was
- 43:51started a few years ago,
- 43:54just before COVID, unfortunately,
- 43:56and then it the study
- 43:57really didn't accrue very well.
- 43:59But now we're part of
- 44:00that particular study. So if
- 44:01you have any patients
- 44:03who have these retroperitoneal
- 44:05masses,
- 44:06definitely send them to the
- 44:08surgeon,
- 44:09but also send them to
- 44:10medical oncology to see if
- 44:12they would be eligible for
- 44:13this trial. And this trial
- 44:15is open at all of
- 44:17our network sites.
- 44:19In other words, you can
- 44:20refer them to a local
- 44:21oncologist, and they can get
- 44:22their treatment there.
- 44:24Basically,
- 44:25they will get three cycles
- 44:28of treatment depending on what
- 44:30histology they have. If they
- 44:31have liposarcoma,
- 44:33they get one particular regimen.
- 44:35And if they have leiomyosarcoma,
- 44:37they get a different regimen
- 44:39and then go on to
- 44:40surgery. So a very
- 44:42simple trial,
- 44:43but a very much needed
- 44:45trial to see if we
- 44:46can improve
- 44:47on the treatment of these
- 44:49patients.
- 44:51Doctor Alino has really been
- 44:53working
- 44:54extensively with immunotherapy
- 44:56in her lab and
- 44:58her patients.
- 45:00And you can see she's,
- 45:03mentioned that there are many
- 45:04different types
- 45:06of
- 45:07of soft tissue sarcoma as
- 45:09shown in this particular slide.
- 45:12And
- 45:13some of them can affect
- 45:14the immune system
- 45:16more than others. I'm not
- 45:17gonna go too much on
- 45:18this complicated slide.
- 45:22So she
- 45:23treated a seventy seven year
- 45:25old, very fit gentleman,
- 45:28found with a left adrenal
- 45:29mass,
- 45:30resected and found to be
- 45:32a different kind of sarcoma
- 45:33from the one I just
- 45:34mentioned. This is an undifferentiated
- 45:37pleomorphic
- 45:38sarcoma.
- 45:39It recurred in twenty nineteen,
- 45:41and he underwent a partial
- 45:43colectomy
- 45:45and partial left nephrectomy.
- 45:47It recurred again,
- 45:50in twenty twenty, and he
- 45:51had completion of left nephrectomy
- 45:53and resection of the mass.
- 45:55And it recurred
- 45:57following that in twenty twenty
- 45:58two.
- 45:59And what they did was
- 46:00they tested his tumor at
- 46:02that time, and they found
- 46:03he had a very high
- 46:05score
- 46:05of PD L1. This is
- 46:07one of the markers that
- 46:08we use in other cancers
- 46:10to predict
- 46:11for response to immunotherapy.
- 46:16Now we know that certain
- 46:18sarcoma types
- 46:19respond to immunotherapy
- 46:22better than other sarcoma types.
- 46:25And this is a slide
- 46:27of all the different patients
- 46:29with sarcoma
- 46:30who have been treated with
- 46:32immunotherapy.
- 46:33And you can see the
- 46:35UPS, this is not the
- 46:37postal company, but this is
- 46:38undifferentiated
- 46:40pleomorphic
- 46:41sarcoma,
- 46:42often can have a very
- 46:44good response to immunotherapy,
- 46:46probably because they have
- 46:48a lot of heterogeneity,
- 46:50and this is a key
- 46:51for many cancers to respond
- 46:53to these immune treatments.
- 46:57So in twenty twenty two,
- 46:59he was treated with seven
- 47:00cycles of pembrolizumab.
- 47:02Unfortunately,
- 47:03he had
- 47:05autoimmune
- 47:05hepatitis.
- 47:07And any time,
- 47:08as you've probably all seen
- 47:09in your practice, you have
- 47:11a patient
- 47:12who has an immune related
- 47:13side effect,
- 47:15The first thing to do
- 47:16if it's very severe
- 47:18is to give steroids.
- 47:19This will very quickly, in
- 47:21the vast majority of cases,
- 47:23reverse the side effect,
- 47:25but it does mean that
- 47:27you can't restart the immunotherapy
- 47:30until they've
- 47:31tapered their steroid down to
- 47:33the equivalent of ten milligrams
- 47:35of prednisone a day.
- 47:39In twenty twenty four, he
- 47:40was unable to restart the
- 47:42immunotherapy,
- 47:43but he had still fairly
- 47:45stable disease
- 47:46probably because of the immunotherapy
- 47:48that he's had all that
- 47:49time before.
- 47:51And he started pazopanib, which
- 47:53is what we call a
- 47:54targeted therapy.
- 47:56It goes after it's a
- 47:57tyrosine kinase inhibitor
- 48:00that goes after some of
- 48:01the enzymes that we think
- 48:03will promote cancer growth.
- 48:06Again, I won't spend too
- 48:08much time on this slide
- 48:09that doctor Alino put together,
- 48:12but you can see there
- 48:13are many ongoing clinical trials
- 48:16that we use now or
- 48:18that are being used now
- 48:20for immunotherapy.
- 48:22We just closed one that
- 48:23we had here, but we
- 48:25we will have others
- 48:27that will open either in
- 48:28our sarcoma group or in
- 48:30what we call our phase
- 48:32one early trials group.
- 48:35So I'm actually gonna
- 48:37end the talk there. I
- 48:38don't know, doctor Laditch or
- 48:40doctor Lee, if you have
- 48:41any closing comments.
- 48:45I I'm still here. I
- 48:46think doctor Lee, had to
- 48:48leave.
- 48:49I think this has been
- 48:50a whirlwind tour, and I
- 48:52think, there's nothing else that
- 48:53I can add that would
- 48:54make this any more glorious
- 48:55than it has been.
- 48:58Thanks, Igor. And,
- 49:00if any of you
- 49:02want to,
- 49:04refer a patient,
- 49:05then feel free to
- 49:08contact us. We're all on
- 49:09the Yale
- 49:10email,
- 49:12and in Epic as well.
- 49:15I'll just see if there
- 49:16are any
- 49:17questions at this time.
- 49:27We don't see any.
- 49:30So, Emily,
- 49:34are you still on the
- 49:34line?