C. Parker Gibbs Jr, MD, Eugene L. Jewett professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, chief medical officer, University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, division chief of Musculoskeletal Oncology, University of Florida College of Medicine, discusses how to test for p16 and p21 in patients with osteosarcoma.

The cell cycle checkpoint regulator proteins p16 and p21 have shown promise as predictive biomarkers with the ability to give insight into a patient’s potential response to treatment for osteosarcoma, explains Gibbs. To test for p16 and p21, a surgical or needle biopsy is performed when a patient presents with osteosarcoma to learn about the diagnosis and the best way to treat.

After the tissue is obtained, it is stained via immunohistochemistry for p16 or p21. From there, the amount of expression the proteins emit can determine the relative risk of metastatic disease or death, concludes Gibbs.

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C. Parker Gibbs Jr, MD, discusses how to test for p16 and p21 in patients with osteosarcoma.

Dr. Gibbs on Testing for p16 and p21 in Osteosarcoma

C. Parker Gibbs Jr., MD, Eugene L. Jewett professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, chief medical officer, University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, division chief, musculoskeletal oncology, University of Florida College of Medicine, discusses the use of cell cycle checkpoint regulators to indicate response to treatment in osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is a highly malignant disease in children and adolescents. However, there are few prognostic markers that indicate how a patient is going to do after treatment with chemotherapy and surgery, explains Gibbs. Currently, a patient’s prognosis is based on tumor characteristics following chemotherapy and surgical resection, says Gibbs.

Currently, there is no way to predict a patient’s likelihood of response to chemotherapy or risk of metastatic disease prior to treatment. However, a study looking at 2 cell cycle checkpoint inhibitors, P16 and P21, have shown promise for indicating aggressive disease biology. When these 2 biologic markers were evaluated in over 100 osteosarcoma specimens, investigators found an association between their expression, metastatic disease, and overall survival in children and adolescents. Gibbs believes this is a major advance because it could allow patients to be stratified prior to treatment and help personalize treatment.

C. Parker Gibbs Jr., MD, discusses the use of cell cycle checkpoint regulators to indicate response to treatment in osteosarcoma.

C. Parker Gibbs

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Dr. Gibbs on Testing for p16 and p21 in Osteosarcoma

Dr. Gibbs on Predicting Response to Treatment in Osteosarcoma