I am a surgical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of patients with soft tissue sarcomas. Sarcoma presents the patient and physician with a unique problem, since it is a rare cancer. In fact, the term sarcoma includes more than 50 different disease subtypes. Each subtype behaves very differently. For patients to receive the best care, each subtype must be treated differently. Most surgeons see very few sarcomas over their career, and they treat each of these tumors in the same way. As a member of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Sarcoma Disease Management Team, I have been able to treat many patients with this disease. For this reason, I have developed an understanding of the challenges posed by each specific subtype of soft tissue sarcoma, and I use this information to provide an individualized recommendation for each of my patients.
I work closely with members of the pathology, radiation oncology, and medical oncology departments. Together, we design treatment plans that maximize the chance of cure while also maximizing the patient's ability to recover normal function after surgery. This allows me to perform limb-sparing procedures for almost all extremity tumors and, when safe, to integrate laparoscopic and minimally invasive techniques into our treatment plan. I monitor many patients at increased risk of developing sarcoma, such as those with Gardner’s syndrome or neurofibromatosis, so as to detect tumors early in their formation and minimize long-term complications.
