Commentary on an article by Tadahiko Kubo, MD, PhD, et al.: “Interferon-α/β Receptor as a Prognostic Marker in Osteosarcoma”

Abstract

Prior to the mid-1970s, the prognosis for patients diagnosed with high-grade, central osteosarcoma was poor, with an overall survival rate that ranged from 10% to 20%. However, the introduction of neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens resulted in marked improvement in the survival of patients with osteosarcoma, and the current overall survival rates range from 60% to 70% for patients with a localized tumor. Nonetheless, despite numerous organized trials and combinations of chemotherapeutic agents, the survival rate for these patients has plateaued, and the prognosis for patients with disseminated osteosarcoma remains extremely poor. Recent advances have shed light on basic molecular mechanisms driving the biology of these tumors and have led to a push to discover additional novel biomarkers that might be exploited for therapeutic means. Numerous osteosarcoma biomarkers have been studied during the past twenty-five years; perhaps the two most publicized are P-glycoprotein and the HER-2/neu gene product. P-glycoprotein, the product of the multidrug resistance gene MDR1, is a transmembrane efflux pump that removes chemotherapeutic agents from tumor cells. One drug that this protein is known to effectively remove from tumor cells is doxorubicin, a first-line agent used in the treatment …