Neoadjuvant radiotherapy for soft tissue sarcomas: personalised precision medicine for a highly malignant and heterogeneous group of tumours

Sarcomas are malignant, locally aggressive tumors that metastasize at an early stage. In this project, the scientists are investigating methods that can show whether and how a sarcoma responds to radiation before surgery. They examine patients with sarcomas before, during and after radiotherapy using a special MRI procedure and determine tumor-specific DNA fragments in the blood as a so-called "liquid biopsy" to determine tumor activity during therapy and to detect recurrences or metastases at an early stage during follow-up. After surgery, they analyze the tumor using molecular genetics and immunohistochemistry. Using a method the team has developed, they fuse this data with MRI to visualize changes in the tumor during radiation. In the future, this will allow to tailor treatment to the individual patient, thereby improving quality of life and reducing mortality.
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