Members of the Sarcoma Disease Management Group (DMG) at Perlmutter Cancer Center collaborate to develop new and better treatments for patients with sarcomas. Our medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and orthopedic surgeons work together to provide patients with the multidisciplinary treatment approach often required to manage sarcomas of the soft tissue and bone and Kaposi sarcoma.

Our nationally renowned surgeons and clinician–scientists work with our basic and translational scientists to investigate novel treatments for patients, including immunotherapy and targeted therapy approaches. We work with pediatric oncologists, pathologists, and radiation oncologists, who use sophisticated technology to target treatments for sarcomas.

Our investigators are working with Sarcoma Alliance through Collaboration (SARC) to perform clinical trials designed to help improve treatments and outcomes for patients with sarcomas.

Sarcoma Research Leadership

Russell S. Berman, MD
Professor, Department of Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology
Vice Chair, Education and Faculty Affairs in Surgery
Director, NYU Regional Cancer Therapy Program
Director, General Surgery Residency Program

Nicola Fabbri, MD
Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Chief, Division of Musculoskeletal Oncology Surgery

Salman R. Punekar, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Peter B. Schiff, MD, PhD
Vice Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology
Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology

Sarcoma Research Areas of Focus

The Sarcoma DMG focuses on prevention, screening, symptom management, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy for sarcomas. Our goal is to develop clinical trials to discover and test new treatments for bone and soft tissue sarcomas. This complements our investigator-sponsored trial of immunotherapy for managing the treatment of patients with metastatic soft tissue and bone sarcoma. We also focus on preoperative chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy to treat sarcomas.

Sarcoma Clinical Trial

A majority of people who have been treated for sarcoma are at risk for recurrence of localized or metastatic sarcoma. This makes follow-up and monitoring an integral part of clinical care.

Currently, however, there are no standard clinical practices for the frequency and type of follow-up imaging tests. To expand research in this area, our investigators, led by Karim Masrouha, MD, and Timothy B. Rapp, MD, are part of Surveillance After Extremity Tumor Surgery (SAFETY), an international clinical trial whose goal is to identify the best surveillance strategies for patients following treatment for soft tissue sarcoma.

The SAFETY trial aims to compare two different surveillance frequencies for patients—every three months versus every six months—and two different types of imaging—CT scans versus chest radiographs. This will help evaluate the effectiveness of these surveillance strategies on overall five-year survival in patients.