Musculoskeletal Oncology Center

About the Musculoskeletal Oncology Center

If you or a loved one is diagnosed with bone cancer, turn to the experts of the Musculoskeletal Oncology Center at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia. Our Center combines the orthopedic surgeons of the Rothman Institute at Jefferson and oncology services at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals.

The Center's services include the multidisciplinary management of sarcoma by a highly experienced team of physicians, including rehabilitation medicine, radiation oncology, medical oncology, pathology, musculoskeletal radiology and anesthesiology.

Center physicians provide complete treatment for several hundred patients a year with complex musculoskeletal oncologic problems, many with relatively rare bone and soft tissue sarcomas. In most cases, our physicians are able to save your limbs so that you can continue to maintain mobility.

Advances in both surgical procedures and complementary nonsurgical treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy allow our physicians to completely remove tumors while maintaining limbs, sparing significant surrounding healthy tissues and maintaining a substantial amount of functional ability.

Jefferson Advantages

• The Jefferson Musculoskeletal Oncology Center functions as one of the nation's few complete sarcoma centers. Studies have shown that patients with sarcoma who are treated at sarcoma centers have better overall outcomes than those who are not.
• Jefferson physicians have considerable expertise in treating a wide variety of bone cancers affecting either upper (arms) or lower limbs (legs, feet), including chondrosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, osteosarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma.
• Dr. John Abraham, director of the Center, is pioneering the application of surgical navigation in sarcoma surgery, which is useful for performing resections in difficult locations - particularly the pelvis.
• The Center's anesthesiologists and rehabilitation medicine physicians have developed postoperative protocols specifically for musculoskeletal oncology patients.
• Although chance of recurrence of some high-grade tumors may be as high as 10 to 15 percent, recurrence among Jefferson patients is low, thanks to not only the quality of orthopedic oncology surgery and radiation therapy but also diligent routine monitoring.

Other Services

The Jefferson Musculoskeletal Oncology Center also offers care for:

• Benign lesions of bone and soft tissue
• Metastatic disease to skeleton and extremities
• Routine orthopedic surgery on oncology patients
• Joint replacement and revision joint placement in medically complex patients
• Management of orthopedic complications of oncology treatment
• Spinal tumors in conjunction with Jefferson's Spine Program