Surgical oncologist Mr Myles Smith and colleagues recently published a new study in the European Journal of Surgical Oncology entitled ‘Gastrointestinal leiomyosarcoma demonstrate a predilection for distant recurrence and poor response to systemic treatments’.

Primary leiomyosarcoma (LMS tumour) of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is rare and there is currently limited literature on the outcome for patients. The team at the Royal Marsden Hospital followed 46 patients with a median age of 54 years who underwent treatment. They concluded that the ‘risk of recurrence is significant’ and that there needed to be development of ‘more effective systemic therapies’ for metastatic disease.