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VCU Massey Cancer Center was recently selected by The Sarcoma Alliance to join their global network of institutions specializing in the treatment of sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects the connective tissues. Massey is the organization’s first and only designated sarcoma center in Virginia. 

The Sarcoma Alliance, founded in 1999, strives to improve the lives of people affected by sarcoma through accurate diagnosis, improved access to care, guidance, education and support. 

“I approached the Sarcoma Alliance a while ago requesting to be part of their network,” said Sosipatros Boikos, M.D., Massey hematologist-oncologist and clinical and research lead of the sarcoma program. “We met their criteria by having a highly-specialized and experienced multidisciplinary sarcoma team, impactful research and a comprehensive sarcoma tumor board and many new exciting clinical trials, including studies for GIST and synovial sarcoma.”

Massey’s sarcoma program is also the first and only Virginia treatment center designated by the Sarcoma Foundation of America. 

Boikos, a member of Massey’s Developmental Therapeutics program and an associate professor in the VCU School of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, is the head of Massey’s sarcoma working group and clinical co-director of the molecular tumor board. He is an active member of the Sarcoma Alliance for Research Through Collaboration (SARC) and the Pediatric and Wild Type GIST Consortium at the National Institute of Health.

Written by: Melissa Mitchell