Diagnostic Study of Tumor Characteristics in Patients With Ewing's Sarcoma

• Event Free Survival [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Univariate analysis using the proportional-hazards regression model will be used to formally assess the prognostic significance of each biological characteristic as it relates to risk for adverse event. Methods such as recursive partitioning adapted to survival analysis will be used to explore possible interactions between the presence of various markers and risk for adverse event.
  
  

• Success rate in which biomarker analyses can be carried out [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Percent of the population on which biomarker analysis could be successfully conducted [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Determined by the number of patients on whom a definitive analytic result could be obtained, divided by the total number of patients enrolled after the test became part of the routine battery used by the investigators.
  
  
• Percent of submissions on which biomarker analysis could be successfully conducted [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Determined by the number of patients on whom a definitive analytic result could be obtained, divided by the total number of patients for whom a specimen was submitted for the relevant assay.
  
  
• Relation to known prognostic factors including the presence or absence of metastatic disease, the site of disease, and other known risk factors [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  The prevalence of these risk factors will be determined for the evaluable and nonevaluable samples to ensure the comparability of these two groups.
  
  

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the prognostic significance of chromosomal translocation subtype in patients with Ewing's sarcoma.
• Determine the prognostic significance of minimal residual disease detection in bone marrow of these patients, using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction determination of EWS-ETS fusion genes.
• Determine whether serum levels of IGF1 and IGFBP3 are of significance to outcome of these patients.
• Establish clinical proteomics for investigating altered signaling molecules in the pathogenesis of Ewing's sarcoma.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients undergo various specimen collections, including bone marrow aspirate, paraffin-embedded blocks of tumor tissue or slides of tumor tissue, and blood specimens. These specimens are collected before, during, and after any chemotherapy regimens, during follow-up, and at time of recurrence. Translocation studies are performed on specimens to identify fusion genes, specifically EWS-ETS. Serum IGF1 and IFGBP3 levels are determined. Bone marrow is assessed for minimal residual disease using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 470 patients will be accrued for this study within 4 years.