At 25th of Feb. 2013 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the approved use of Bayer Pharmaceutical's drug Stivarga (regorafenib) to treat patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) that cannot be surgically removed and no longer respond to other FDA-approved treatments for this disease. Stivarga was approved in September 2012 to treat colorectal cancer.

The British Sarcoma Group annual conference in 2013 is being programmed by members of the East Midlands Sarcoma Specialist MDT chaired by Mr Rob Ashford. The Conference starts with a patient advocacy day supported by the three main charities, Sarcoma UK, the Bone Cancer Research Trust and GIST Support UK. Nurses and other clinicians are invited to join the patients from lunch-time for a number of focussed workshops addressing key issues of the day selected by both the charities and the BSG. Read more

For the first time ever, scientists have identified a specific genetic risk factor that, when present, significantly increases the chances that an individual will develop chordoma. This discovery – a milestone outcome of the Chordoma Foundation’s significant investment in the Chordoma Genome Project over the past three years – provides unprecedented insight into how chordoma forms, and potentially how to effectively treat it.