The Musculoskeletal Tumor Program treats infants, adolescents and young adults with various musculoskeletal tumors
soft tissue tumors and bone tumors.
Soft tissue and primary bone cancer care is provided by the physicians in our Solid Tumor Program. This team works closely with the Orthopedic program, specifically Maya Pring, M.D., and Frank Chiarappa, M.D., to provide care for patients with musculoskeletal tumors such as Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma. Besides helping those with Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma, we rely on the expertise of our Physical Therapy program to provide rehabilitation therapy for our patients following the primary tumor surgery.
For patients requiring radiation therapy, in addition to surgery for soft tissue tumors or affected bone tumors, we work closely with Iain MacEwan, M.D. Dr. MacEwan oversees the care of our patients at both the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego and the California Protons Cancer Therapy Center (through our Proton Therapy program). Learn about radiation therapy for pediatric cancers.
Additionally, the team relies on the expertise of the Acute Pain Service and Hematology/Oncology Supportive Care Program, specifically JoAnne Auger, R.N., CHPPN, supportive care nurse for the Peckham Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders, and Kimberly Bower, M.D., who serves as a palliative care consultant/hospice liaison, to assist with symptom management and provide multidisciplinary psychosocial support to patients with primary tumors and their families.
The soft tissue and affected bone tumor program’s research component will involve biologic and therapeutic clinical trials (cooperative group, industry-sponsored, principal investigator-initiated), many of which utilize novel agents, as well as quality improvement projects specifically targeting patients with solid tumors. Learn about the Peckham Center’s cancer clinical trials.