Rocky Mountain Pediatric Hematology/Oncology physician John VanDoorninck is the lead author of an article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in April 2010 [28(12):1989-94.] He researched this topic during his time at the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
"Current Treatment Protocols Have Eliminated the Prognostic Advantage of Type I Fusions in Ewing Sarcoma: A Progress Report from the Children's Oncology Group" is the title of his paper. He writes that the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) consists of highly malignant bone and soft tissue neoplasms, and that despite multimodality therapy, overall survival is approximately 70% for patients with localized ESFT and only 20-30% for patients with metastatic disease. Various clinicopathologic variables have been investigated as prognostic indicators with hopes that clinicians may taylor therapy for tumors predicted to have favorable outcomes. Unfortunately, no criteria currently exist that allow prediction of response to therapy. However, the success of intensive treatment protocols for localized ESFTs have eliminated this clinical disadvantage formerly observed in patients with non-type 1 EWS-FLI1 fusions.
To see a complete copy of Dr. van Doorninck's article, please stop by the main desk of the library.
