Improving Treatment for Rhabdomyosarcoma: A Collaborative Approach through the European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG)

Dear Colleagues,

Rhabdomyosarcoma, the commonest soft tissue sarcoma in children, requires multimodality treatment with chemotherapy, surgery, and/or radiotherapy to effect cure. Although outcomes for localized rhabdomyosarcoma have continued to improve, patients with metastatic or relapsed disease continue to do poorly, and better systemic and local therapy treatments are needed. The European paediatric soft tissue sarcoma study group (https://www.epssgassociation.it/), involving a multidisciplinary collaboration of basic scientists and clinical experts in many countries in Europe and beyond, has recently conducted practice-changing trials in high-risk and relapsed rhabdomyosarcoma and is advancing new treatments for both children and adults with the disease in its new multi-arm, multi-stage Frontline and Relapse Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (FaR-RMS) with associated biomarker and biological studies.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight and showcase collaborative research that is shaping our current thinking about how to improve treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma and which new approaches to offer to the highest risk patients. The scope includes original preclinical, translational, or clinical research, review articles, workshop summaries, and perspectives from patients/patient advocates that inform our understanding of how best to treat patients with rhabdomyosarcoma.

Dr. Julia Chisholm
Prof. Dr. Janet Shipley
Dr. Johannes H. M Merks
Guest Editors

Publisher’s notice:

As stated above, the central purpose of this Special Issue is to present research from the European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG) Project. Given this purpose, the Guest Editors’ contribution to this Special Issue may be greater than outlined in MDPI’s Special Issue guidelines (https://www.mdpi.com/special_issues_guidelines). The Editorial Office and Editor-in-Chief of Cancers has approved this Topic and MDPI’s standard manuscript editorial processing procedure (https://www.mdpi.com/editorial_process) will be applied to all submissions. As per our standard procedure, Guest Editors are excluded from participating in the editorial process for their submission and/or for submissions from persons with whom a potential conflict of interest may exist. More details on MDPI’s Conflict of Interest policy for reviewers and editors can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/ethics#_bookmark22.

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