Response to anti-PD1 immunotherapy in patients with metastatic cutaneous sarcoma: case reports and literature review

Oxf Med Case Reports. 2020 Jan 31;2020(1):omz138. doi: 10.1093/omcr/omz138. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Dermal sarcomas represent a group or rare malignancies of mesenchymal origin. Although surgical excision with wide margins can be curative, in the advanced/metastatic setting, treatment options are limited and the benefit from anthracycline-based chemotherapy or targeted agents is usually short-lived. Tumor mutational burden and PD-L1 expression scores can be used as predictive biomarker for response to immunotherapy in some metastatic cancers. The role of immune-checkpoint blockade for sarcoma patients remains investigational. Here we present three cases of dermal sarcomas with high TMB and PD-L1 expression and responses to anti-PD1 agents in two of them.

Keywords: anti-PD1 immunotherapy; metastatic atypical fibroxanthoma; metastatic epithelioid sarcoma; metastatic pleomorphic dermal sarcoma; pembrolizumab; response; tumor mutational burden.

Publication types

  • Case Reports