The Samuel Singer Lab

Soft tissue sarcoma is a heterogeneous disease with more than 50 histological subtypes, which have diverse biological behavior and – in many cases – unique genetics. Many sarcoma subtypes respond poorly to chemotherapy, so there is an urgent need for better treatment options for patients whose disease cannot be cured surgically. The major focus of my research is the discovery of genetic and epigenetic alterations in sarcoma to gain insight into sarcoma biology and find new targets for therapy.

The immediate goal of our research is to increase our understanding of sarcoma biology by discovering the alterations in DNA and RNA that cause sarcomas to develop and progress. These findings allow us to improve both the accuracy of diagnosis and the accuracy of predicting treatment outcome and survival for individual patients. These better predictions, in turn, will make it possible for patients to be given the treatment (such as a specific targeted therapy, chemotherapy, or radiation) most likely to be effective for their particular tumor.

Another goal of the research is to find new targeted therapies aimed specifically at alterations in particular tumor types. Examples of targeted therapies that I have been actively involved in developing and designing include anti-angiogenesis therapy for soft tissue sarcoma, imatinib (Gleevec®) for gastrointestinal stromal sarcoma, and cell cycle kinase inhibitor therapies (CDK4, AURKA, and PLK1), demethylating agents, HDAC inhibitors, and PPAR gamma ligands for various liposarcomas.

I am optimistic that this research will ultimately improve survival and quality of life for patients with soft tissue sarcoma.

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