Surgery is the most common treatment for bone and soft tissue sarcomas.

Radiation therapy or chemotherapy may be given before or after surgery to kill tumor cells or to increase the probability that the tumor will not return.

Depending on the location and grade of the tumor, surgery may involve:

• Wide local excision, which involves removing the tumor and a rim, or margin, of normal tissue around the tumor.
• Amputation to remove all or part of an arm or leg, if resection of the tumor would result in a non-viable limb.
• Removal of the lymph nodes that contain cancer (lymphadenectomy).
• Removal of metastatic disease from the lung.

Our mission at Duke Cancer Institute is to remove the tumor while preserving as much function as possible. Our experienced surgeons excel at limb- and organ-sparing operations, which can now be performed in more than 90 percent of cases of bone or soft-tissue tumors.

At times, the only hope for cure calls for removal of a critical joint or span of bone or large amount of muscle.

When necessary, our surgeons can expertly replace them with a customized artificial joint for the hip, knee, shoulder, or elbow.

Large stretches of cancerous bone may be replaced with bone transplants (“allografts”), or vascularized autologous bone (the patient’s own transplanted fibula). Vascularized muscle transfers and other soft tissue reconstruction can be performed as well.

Each of these techniques has proven very successful for restoring function to bones, joints, and tissue that would otherwise be destroyed by treatment.

When limb removal is absolutely essential, we use sophisticated, customized prosthetics to ensure a natural look and feel as well as maximum flexibility and range of motion.

Our surgeons also have experience performing rotationplasty, a surgical alternative to above-the-knee amputations which offers greater functionality.

Appointments

To make an appointment or refer a patient to the multidisciplinary sarcoma team at the Duke Cancer Institute, call 919-613-5550 or 877-SARC DUKE (877-727-2385).