Led by Professor Udo Oppermann, Chair in Musculoskeletal Sciences at NDORMS, the meeting brought together expertise spanning clinical practice, molecular biology and drug discovery, with a shared aim to better understand chondrosarcoma and accelerate the development of effective treatments for this rare bone cancer. The event was supported by Bone Cancer Research Trust, Sarcoma UK as well as private sponsors PacBio and 10X Genomics.
The day opened with a clinical focus, highlighting the challenges of diagnosing and treating a disease with diverse subtypes and limited therapeutic options. A keynote address delivered by Dominique Heymann, Universite de Nantes, explored how the tumour microenvironment may offer new avenues for intervention.
Subsequent talks discussed how biological insights can translate into clinical impact and examined histological classification of chondrosarcoma, emerging molecular pathways, and the current landscape of therapies in clinical trials. Together, these sessions emphasised the importance of integrating pathology, genomics and clinical data to refine diagnosis and guide treatment decisions.
A central feature of the workshop was the inclusion of patient and charity perspectives. A dedicated discussion session asked a simple but important question: ‘What do patients and carers prioritise?’
Participants heard from Jeffrey Kramer, who joined live from the USA to tell the story of the Chondrosarcoma Foundation, set up in memory of his daughter Shayna who lost her battle to the disease in 2019. The Foundation addresses the lack of information and support for chondrosarcoma patients, offering services like a sarcoma tumour board, information guides, and a patient registry.
‘Our goals are to increase our public awareness programs, to improve early detection and diagnosis, and to create the infrastructure for collaborations so that we're looking globally at this problem and not just be in our own individual silos,’ said Jeffrey.
Patients in the room emphasised the need for better guidelines and educational resources for physicians to improve early diagnosis and treatment. The timeline from symptom onset to proper diagnosis can be up to three years highlighting the challenges in diagnosing chondrosarcoma, even for specialised pathologists.
The afternoon shifted towards systems biology approaches, with speakers presenting new methods for target discovery, including single-cell and long-read sequencing technologies, proteomics and machine learning. These approaches are beginning to reveal the complexity of sarcoma biology and offer the potential to identify therapeutic vulnerabilities.
The final session focused on developing and testing new treatment approaches for chondrosarcoma. Speakers highlighted a range of emerging technologies and potential therapies, to help turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients.
A final roundtable discussion concluded the event focussing on collaborative strategies for advancing research in chondrosarcoma. There was a clear need for shared resources, such as sequencing hundreds of samples, but recognition of legal and logistical barriers in data sharing.
In rounding up the workshop Udo said: ‘This workshop is a step forward to bring expertise and resources together. Whilst the necessary tools and technologies are available to advance and translate research into tangible patient benefits, an important task will be to coordinate and align researchers and their institutions to allow open access and data sharing. An international effort is needed to advance our knowledge and identify novel therapeutic approaches in rare cancers such as chondrosarcoma.’