Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  500
New cases per year:  350
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 700
Embedded: 1300

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• EORTC-STBSG
• ISG
• Conticanet
• WSN

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Institution representative

Dr. Paolo Casali
Sarcoma Multidisciplinary Group Coordinator
Head of the Adult Mesenchymal Tumour Medical Oncology Unit

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Paolo G. Casali, MD, medical oncologist, is head of the Adult Mesenchymal Tumour Medical Oncology Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy. He also serves as Secretary of the Ethics Committee of this institution. He is the Secretary of the Italian Sarcoma Group and a member of the EORTC Soft Tissue & Bone Sarcoma Group. He chairs the Italian Network on Rare Tumors, focusing on distant patient sharing to improve quality of care and diminish health migration for rare solid cancers. He is an Editor in Chief of Clinical Sarcoma Research. He is a member of the Executive Board of ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) as chair of the Public Policy/European Affairs Committee. He is a member of the Policy Committee of ECCO (European Cancer Organization). He teaches Medical Therapy of Rare Cancers at the Milan University postgraduate school in Oncology.

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  300
New cases per year:  140
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: Yes
Embedded: Yes

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• EORTC-STBSG
• ISG
• EuroBoNet
• European Ostesarcoma Intergroup
• Dutch Sarcoma Study Group
• Eurosarc
• Euro-Ewing
• WSN

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Institution representative

Pr A.J. (Hans) Gelderblom
Professor of experimental pharmacotherapy in oncology Board member EORTC, Systemic treatment committee chairman and bone conatc person EORTC-STBSG,  chairman EOI
Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:
Prof Gelderblom is board member of EORTC and chair of the European Osteosarcoma Intergroup as well as EORTC-Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma systemic treatment committee chair and bone contact person. He is part of anultidisciplinary sarcoma team at the Leiden university Medical Center: one of the national referral centers for bone and soft tissue sarcoma, including GIST. The LUMC is world known for its pathology and translational research (headed by Prof Hogendoorn) and is home of the Dutch Committee on Bone Tumours. Prof Gelderblom is currently editorial board member of the European Journal of Cancer and Annals of Oncology, editor in chief of the Dutch Journal for Oncology and Chair of the Medical Oncologist Organisation of the Netherlands. His research interest focuses on experimental pharmacotherapy, especially in sarcoma and pharmacogenetics. Prof Gelderblom has published over 150 peer reviewed articles. He is active member of the European society of Medical Oncology, the American Association of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research and has served on serveral committees of these societies.

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  300
New cases per year:  200
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 500
Embedded: 1000

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• EORTC-STBSG
• Polish Sarcoma Group
• Conticanet
• EuroBonet
• EuroSarc
• Polish GIST Registry
• Polish Bone Tumour Registry
• WSN

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Institution representative

Prof. Piotr Rutkowski 
Professor of Surgical Oncology at MSCMCCIO; Head of Department of Soft Tissue/Bone Sarcoma
and Melanoma
Vice Director of MSCMCCIO - Clinical Trials Sector
Chairman of Local Treatment Subcommitte of EORTC STBSG

Speciality:Oncological Surgeon and General Surgeon

Micro CV:

Prof. Dr. Piotr Rutkowski is Professor of Medicine at the Maria Sk?odowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology (MSCMCCIO),  the Vice Director of MSCMCCIO – Clinical Trials Sector, and Head of Department of Soft Tissue/bone sarcoma and Melanoma. He is the Chair of the Polish GIST Registry and Polish Bone Tumors Registry. He is the Board Member of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society and the NOCI Representative for the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, in addition to over 150 abstracts and bhook chapters, with an H factor of 12 as of Dec 2011. His research interests focus on on sarcoma research (multimodal treatment and prognostic factors), GIST (prognostic factors, molecular aspects of treatment of advance disease and mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapy) and melanoma (sentinel node biopsy tissues, adjuvant therapy, targeted therapy, detection of submicroscopic disease and circulating molecular prognostic makers). Prof Rutkowski is an active member of the European Society of Medical Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Polish Society fo Surgical Oncology (Board Member). He is working very closely in national patients’ advocacy groups for GIST and sarcoma.

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year: 5000
New cases per year: 1000
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 2000
Embedded: 

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• SARC
• EORTC
• NCCN
• WSN

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Institution representative

Dr. George D. Demetri
Director, Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology; Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  75
New cases per year:  250
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 
Embedded: 

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• SARC
• CALGB 

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Institution representative

Robert G. Maki MD PhD
Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Orthopaedics

Speciality: Medical Oncologist, Pediatric Oncology

Micro CV:
Dr. Robert Maki is Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Orthopaedics, and the Steven Ravitch Chair in Pediatric Hematology-Onocology. He has published more than 100 articles on sarcoma treatment and basic science research, having worked on studies related to sarcoma since 1985. He treats adults and children with sarcomas (connective tissue cancers of bone, cartilage, muscle, fat and other soft tissue) and has an interest in translational research and the biology that leads to different types of sarcomas. 
After his MD/PhD at Cornell Medical College in New York City, he was a resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston before a medical oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber, and was on staff at Dana-Farber before starting at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in 1999. In March, 2011 he moved to the Mount Sinai Medical Center to develop the effort in adult sarcoma therapy and research.
Dr. Maki's efforts at Mount Sinai will be directed towards an increasingly integrative effort sarcoma biology and treatment of sarcomas. His group conducts clinical trials in adults with sarcomas, and they will also conduct translational studies in sarcoma biology to identify the next possible targets for new drugs to treat sarcomas. 
Dr Maki now also leads the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology program at Mount Sinai, and will continue his personal interest in the care of adolescents with sarcomas, while also expanding the role of the pediatric hematology-oncology program in the treatment and research of pediatric cancers such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, as well as "benign" but often life-threatening hematologic conditions.
Recent Awards
2009 - 2011  NCI-ASCO Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award,
National Cancer Institute & American Society for Clinical Oncology

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  900
New cases per year:  600
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 1000
Embedded: 10000

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• EORTC
• EORTC-STBSG
• FSG
• Conticanet
• WSN

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Institution representative

Dr. Axel Le Cesne
Head of Sarcoma Unit
Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Dr Le Cesne is currently head of the Bone/Soft Tissue Sarcoma Unit in the Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, a post he has held since 1996. He works at the Institut Gustave Roussy since 1989 as intern, fellowship and then full-member of this Institution. Dr Le Cesne studied medicine at Cochin-Port Royal in Paris qualifying in 1986. He obtained his Board Certification in Medical Oncology in 1991. 

Dr Le Cesne is the author of over 150 research articles in the field of Sarcoma, Lung and Breast cancer, Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy. He is a member of several societies including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). He is an active member of the Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Group (STBSG) of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) since 1993 and secretary of the French Sarcoma Group since 2001 and co-chairman since 2005.

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  490
New cases per year:  260
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 700
Embedded: 1300

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma:Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• EORTC
• EORTC-STBSG
• FSG
• Conticanet
• EuroSarc
• WSN

Institution representative

Pr. Jean-Yves Blay
Professor in Medicine at University Claude Bernard Lyon 1
President of EORTC
Chairman of French Sarcoma Group

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Prof. Dr. Jean-Yves Blay is Professor of Medicine at the Université Claude Bernard from Lyon, France, and the President of the EORTC. He is the Chair of the French Sarcoma Group, and the Head of the national Network for Clinical management of sarcoma appointed by the French National cancer Institute (INCA). He has been the scientific director of the Canceropole CLARA and the National Representative for the European Society of Medical Oncology. He is currently member of the international editorial board of Lancet Oncology, European Journal of Cancer, and Bull Cancer. Pr. Blay has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, in addition to over 200 abstracts and book chapters, with an H factor of 42 as of Jan 2011. His research interests focus on the biology of sarcomas and breast carcinoma and relation between tumour microenvironment and malignant cells with the goal of clinical applications in the fields of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. He is also involved in clinical and biological research in the field of soft tissue sarcomas. Dr. Blay is an active member of the European Society of Medical Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Association of Cancer Research and has served as member of Scientific Committees for the ESMO and AACR meetings.

Number of patients with sarcomas*: 
Treated per year:  150-200
New cases per year:  120
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 200-300
Embedded: 1000

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• ASSG
• ISKS
• WSN
• COSA

Institution representative

Dr. David Thomas
Leader Sarcoma genomics and genetics laboratory

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Associate Professor David Thomas is an NHMRC and Victorian Cancer Agency Senior Research Fellow. He is a medical oncologist specialising in sarcomas, and a research fellow at the University of Melbourne. Dr Thomas is responsible for over $10M in research funding over the past 5 years, and has over 90 peer-reviewed publications to his credit. He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Bioessays, the Japanese Journal of Orthopedic Research, Clinical Sarcoma Research, and Frontiers in Genetics. 

Dr Thomas has a particular focus on the impact of genomics on cancer medicine. His current basic research interests include quantitative evolutionary genetics in cancer cell populations, mapping a cancer neochromosome at single nucleotide resolution, and understanding the role of the immune system in development of osteosarcoma. Based on the assumption that cancer genomics will create opportunities for placing human populations at the centre of cancer research, Dr Thomas has played a key role in establishing several large-scale cancer cohorts. These include the world’s largest cohort of sarcoma kindreds (the International Sarcoma Kindred Study), and Cancer2015, a 10,000 strong cohort of newly diagnosed cancer patients drawn from all parts of the Victorian Cancer network. 

His work has impacted upon cancer care in several fields. Dr Thomas was the lead author on a ground-breaking international clinical trial of denosumab in Giant Cell Tumor of bone, which has led to a new therapeutic option for patients with advanced disease. He also established a national infrastructure for clinical research into sarcomas, having established the Australasian Sarcoma Study Group (ASSG) as its founding Chair (2008-11).  The ASSG has recruited over 600 Australian patients with sarcoma to clinical studies since its inception. As Director of the statewide adolescent and young adult cancer service, onTrac@PeterMac (2005-10), Dr Thomas played a significant role in the development of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer services across the state, as well as nationally and internationally.  In Victoria, AYA cancer care is now regarded as a standard of care.

Number of patients with sarcomas*:
Treated per year:  800-900
New cases per year:  
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank: 
Frozen: 
Embedded:

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• SARC

Institution representative

Dr. Shreyaskumar R.Patel
Medical Director of the Sarcoma Center

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Dr. Shreyaskumar Patel is the Medical Director of the Sarcoma Center, a Tenured Professor of Medicine and Deputy Chairman of the Dept. of Sarcoma Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He graduated from Baroda Medical College in Baroda, India and did his Medical Oncology training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Patel has authored or co-authored more than 150 articles in various journals and has been section editor for the Sarcoma Section of Current Oncology Reports since 2000. He has also authored or co-authored 19 book chapters. His clinical research interests include systemic therapy for sarcomas, GISTs and other tumors originating in bone and soft tissues. He is currently a member the Executive Committee and Chair of the Clinical Research Committee of SARC, Vice-President of CTOS and has served as the past Program Chair for CTOS and the Sarcoma Track for ASCO.

Number of patients with sarcomas*: 
Treated per year:  120
New cases per year:  100
*All soft tissue and bone sarcoma, including GIST and Desmoids, referred in WHO classification

Technological platform:
Molecular diagnosis:  Yes
Translational research: Yes
Basic research on sarcomas:  Yes

Tumor bank:
Frozen: 300
Embedded: 1000

Multidisciplinary consultations for sarcoma: Yes

Participation in International or national research networks in the field of sarcomas:

• EORTC
• Dutch Sarcoma Network
• Conticanet

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Institution representative

Pr. Jaap Verweij
Head of the Department of Medical Oncology

Speciality: Medical Oncologist

Micro CV:

Jaap Verweij, M.D., Ph.D is a Professor of Medical Oncology and chair of the Department of Medical Oncology of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His main scientific interests are new drug development, including the performance of clinical phase I and early phase II trials, and the inclusion of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in these studies. He also has a major interest in the design aspects of early clinical studies. Besides his clinical activities he has been the chairman of the Early Clinical Studies Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) from 1993-1996, chairman of the EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group from 1996-1999, chairman of the EORTC New Treatment Committee, the EORTC New Drug Advisory Committee, and Vice-President of EORTC. He has also been president of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS), chairman of the RECIST working group, and chairman of the Scientific Council of the Dutch Cancer Foundation He has recently been editor of the European Journal of Cancer and is still associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He currently serves as vice-chairman in the Board of the Dutch Cancer Foundation. In 2011 Jaap Verweij was appointed as member of the Royal Dutch Acadamy of Arts and Sciences.He has authored or co-authored over 700 papers on various aspects, and has given numerous lectures on a variety of topics at international meetings.