Ewing Sarcoma Meets Epigenetics, Immunology and Nanomedicine: Moving Forward into Novel Therapeutic Strategies

Simple Summary

Ewing Sarcoma treatment is traditionally based on chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy. Although these standard of care regimens are efficient at early disease stages, many patients fail to respond appropriately, which has prompted the search for more efficacious and specific treatments. A deeper understanding of the basic molecular mechanisms underlying the biology of both tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment, as well as advances in drug delivery, has led to the development of different approaches to improve the treatment in Ewing Sarcoma patients. Thus, epigenetic, and immunotherapy-based drugs, along with nanotechnology delivery strategies, represent novel preclinical and clinical studies in the treatment of Ewing Sarcoma. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of these emerging therapeutic strategies and summarize the potential of the latest preclinical and clinical trials in Ewing Sarcoma research. Finally, we underline the value and future directions of these new treatments.

Abstract

Ewing Sarcoma (EWS) is an aggressive bone and soft tissue tumor that mainly affects children, adolescents, and young adults. The standard therapy, including chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy, has substantially improved the survival of EWS patients with localized disease. Unfortunately, this multimodal treatment remains elusive in clinics for those patients with recurrent or metastatic disease who have an unfavorable prognosis. Consistently, there is an urgent need to find new strategies for patients that fail to respond to standard therapies. In this regard, in the last decade, treatments targeting epigenetic dependencies in tumor cells and the immune system have emerged into the clinical scenario. Additionally, recent advances in nanomedicine provide novel delivery drug systems, which may address challenges such as side effects and toxicity. Therefore, therapeutic strategies stemming from epigenetics, immunology, and nanomedicine yield promising alternatives for treating these patients. In this review, we highlight the most relevant EWS preclinical and clinical studies in epigenetics, immunotherapy, and nanotherapy conducted in the last five years.