How Can I Locate a Sarcoma Oncologist?

Because of its complex presentation, sarcoma requires specialized treatment and a team of professionals who have treated sarcoma in various forms and body sites. Its rarity means that finding an experienced oncologist can take time. Use of multiple resources is the key to success in locating hospitals that conduct sarcoma research, identifying physicians who have treated sarcoma in the past, and finding experienced care centers that are geographically convenient to the patient.

Two Approaches

• There are two approaches to finding a sarcoma oncologist: top down, or grassroots up.

  With the "top down" approach, research will focus on using government resources such as the National Cancer Institute's cancer.gov site to locate all of the hospitals and research centers in the world that treat sarcoma, and then whittling down the list to find those that are geographically closest to the patient or that focus on a particular tumor type or site. For example, some research centers or oncologists who treat sarcoma focus on soft tissue sarcomas, or on sarcomas of the limbs. After identifying an appropriate treatment center, finding the sarcoma oncologist at that center is easy.

  The "grassroots up" approach focuses on using local resources, such as a patient's primary care physician, a local hospital or a local chapter of a patient advocacy group, to locate sarcoma oncologists nearby or to find those who are known to the patient's community. Local community hospitals frequently establish relationships with large academic research centers, and advocacy groups maintain lists of local resources to help patients and their families.

Resources Are Key

• Regardless of approach, the use of resources developed by government, nonprofit and foundation sources is the key to success in building a strategy to find a sarcoma oncologist. Be mindful of resources developed by the NIH and by patient groups such as the Sarcoma Alliance. Patients also can search the National Library of Medicine for oncologists who publish research about sarcoma to identify which hospitals or medical schools are experienced in treatment. Professional organizations such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology or the American College of Surgeons maintain rosters of their members who treat particular types of cancer, including sarcoma. Visiting web sites such as clinical trials.gov will help patients determine which hospitals and which oncologists are conducting clinical trials on new treatments for sarcoma.