Advanced Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans Treatment With Imatinib: Experience From a Dedicated Sarcoma Medical Oncology Clinic in India

Purpose Advanced dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is an exceptionally uncommon disease with scarce literature, especially from developing countries. Molecular testing is unfortunately not available in India, and expert diagnosis by a sarcoma pathologist is available only in tertiary care centers. Materials and Methods We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients with inoperable DFSP (on the basis of expert histopathology only) who presented to our sarcoma medical oncology clinic from January 2016 to July 2017. Results There were a total of seven patients, with median age of 35 years, predominantly males (85.7%). Fibrosarcomatous variant and metastatic disease were present in six (85.7%) patients. Partial response rates were 71.4%, and overall disease control was 85.7%. Median progression-free survival was 14 months. Conclusion DFSP diagnosis on the basis of expert histopathology in the absence of translocation can help out in targeted therapy–based treatment until translocation testing becomes available. The fibrosarcomatous variant has poor outcome, and further research is needed to help this group of patients.