Grand Challenges in Bone and Soft Tissue Cancers

Bone and soft tissue cancers encompass one of the most biologically heterogeneous groups of malignancies in oncology, spanning more than 100 histological subtypes, affecting patients across all ages, and arising from diverse mesenchymal cell lineages across bone, muscle, fat, connective tissue, and vascular structures. Despite their rarity relative to carcinomas, sarcomas and bone metastasis carry a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality, particularly in pediatric and young adult populations. Advanced and metastatic disease remains difficult to treat, with limited systemic options, high rates of therapeutic resistance, and survival outcomes that have improved only modestly over the past two decades. The field now stands at a critical inflection point: rapid advances in molecular profiling, immuno-oncology, and precision medicine are opening new therapeutic avenues yet fundamental challenges in diagnosis, treatment, and translational research remain unresolved.This Research Topic marks the inaugural collection of the Bone and Soft Tissue Cancers section at Frontiers in Oncology. Led by the section’s Specialty Chief Editor Alessandro De Vita, Grand Challenges in Bone and Soft Tissue Cancers invites the global research community to define the most pressing questions facing the field and to share the discoveries, clinical advances, and frameworks needed to answer them. We aim to consolidate cutting-edge research across the full spectrum of bone and soft tissue malignancies, fostering a multidisciplinary dialogue between molecular biologists, pathologists, medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and translational researchers.To capture the breadth of current and emerging research, we welcome articles including but not limited to the following topics:• Molecular and genomic mechanisms of bone and soft tissue tumor pathogenesis, progression, and metastasis, including driver mutations, fusion oncoproteins, and epigenetic regulation.• Immunotherapy in bone and soft tissue tumors: mechanisms of immune evasion, tumor microenvironment characterization, checkpoint inhibitor efficacy, and emerging cellular therapies including CAR-T cells.• Targeted therapies and resistance: novel therapeutic targets, mechanism-based drug development, and strategies to overcome intrinsic and acquired resistance.• Advances in diagnosis and monitoring: next-generation imaging, molecular pathology, liquid biopsy, and circulating tumor DNA in bone and soft tissue cancers.• Rare and ultra-rare sarcoma subtypes: clinicopathologic characterization, differential diagnosis, and patient management.• Translational and clinical research across the care continuum, including surgical innovation, radiation approaches, perioperative strategies, and patient outcomes in pediatric and adult populations.This is an open call for the sarcoma and bone metastasis research community worldwide. We invite you to submit original research articles, clinical trials, translational and mechanistic studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, perspectives, and invited commentaries. Research on any bone or soft tissue malignancy subtype, from the most common to the most rare, is welcome.Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent clinical or patient cohort, or biological validation in vitro or in vivo, which are not based on public databases) are not suitable for publication in this journal. Topic editors: Alessandro De Vita Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82678/grand-challenges-in-bone-and-soft-tissue-cancers