A study to see if it is possible to use a blood test to monitor people with sarcoma

This study is looking at faulty DNA in blood samples of people with soft tissue sarcoma or a type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. Sarcomas are rare cancers.

Cancers are made up of cells that grow and multiply quickly. Cancer cells do this because they have gathered a number of mistakes in their DNA, the instruction manual for building the body and keeping it healthy. Scientists call these mistakes ‘mutations’. They make the DNA look different to healthy DNA and give the DNA an individual look, or ‘signature’ when they are studied in the laboratory.

Small numbers of cancer cells, all with this signature, move into the blood constantly. So, finding DNA with the signature in the blood shows that there is cancer in the body. Researchers in this study want to identify gene signatures that will be unique to each patient, and to monitor this in their blood.

The aim of this study is to see if it is possible to use a blood test to monitor people with cancer, by looking at the faulty tumour DNA signature in the blood. In future, doctors may be able to use a blood test to spot when cancer has come back, or see how well a tumour is responding to treatment.

You will not have any direct benefit from taking part in this study, and it is unlikely to change your treatment plan in any way. But the results of the study will be used to help people with cancer in the future.

Recruitment

Start 16/09/2010

End 16/09/2015

Phase

Other

Who can enter

You may be able to enter this study if you

Are being cared for at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, or at University College Hospital, London
Have osteosarcoma that has been confirmed with a biopsy, and you are due to have chemotherapy before surgery or have a sarcoma that has been confirmed with a biopsy and you are not due to have chemotherapy

You cannot enter this study if you

Have any other cancer apart from a sarcoma
Have any mental health condition that would make if difficult for you to understand what the study is about and what it will involve
Have Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV
Have any condition or test result that could affect the results of the study – you can check this with your doctor
Are under 4 years of age

Trial design

This study will recruit 200 people.

Everyone will give permission for the team to study a small piece of stored cancer tissue (biopsy) they had removed when their sarcoma was diagnosed. You also give permission for the team to study your X-rays, scans and medical notes.

You give a sample of blood

Before and after your surgery
Several times during chemotherapy, if you have it
At some of the follow up hospital visits you make after you finish treatment, for up to 5 years

The team will look at your cancer sample to find the gene changes (mutations) it carries. They will then look to see if they can find these changes in your blood samples. Please note, because these samples are for research rather than a part of your treatment plan, the team will not tell you any results from them.

Hospital visits

You will give your study blood samples when you are at the hospital for a planned routine appointment. So you will not need to make any extra visits to take part in this study.