[What is the value of recent molecular biology knowledge for surgical oncologic therapy of soft tissue sarcoma?]

While clinical progress in the treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma is rather slow, some major contributions to the understanding of oncogenesis of these rare tumors have been achieved in the last decade. The central role of cell cycle regulation has been demonstrated in hereditary (p53, RB) and somatic mutations or variant expression of genes associated with cell cycle regulation (p53, BCL2, MDM2). For a subset of soft tissue sarcomas harboring chromosomal translocations, fusion genes resulting from these specific translocations were cloned and characterized. The clinical use of these fusion genes may not be restricted to diagnosis and prognosis, since these may serve as specific targets for molecular and immunologic therapy approaches.