Introduction

The Department of Bone Oncology & Diseases Surgery was founded in 2008 as an offshoot of the Department of Orthopedics. It specializes in surgical managements of primary bone tumors, metastatic bone tumors, soft tissue tumors, and complicated bone diseases. In 2014, the department became one of China’s pioneers in establishing a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) dedicated to bone and soft tissue tumors.It received the Excellence Award from the Shanghai Outpatient Management and Quality Control Center in 2021. The department has made significant strides in clinical practice, research, and education, with 48 beds and 7 senior surgeons, boasting an annual surgical volume exceeding 2,000.

The department's clinical specialties include limb-salvage with artificial joints, 3D-printed prosthetic reconstruction, autologous fibular limb-salvage reconstruction, bone transport limb-salvage, pelvic and sacral tumor resection and reconstruction, spinal tumor decompression surgery, total vertebrectomy and reconstruction for spinal tumors, spinal tumor radiofrequency ablation, microsurgical repair of soft tissue and vascular defects after large tumor resection, rotationplasty limb-salvage in children, partial joint replacement in children, biological stem tumor prosthetic revision, and intraoperative brachytherapy for soft tissue tumors. The Bone and Soft Tissue Tumor Comprehensive Diagnosis and Treatment Center integrates oncology, radiology, pathology, nuclear medicine, and thoracic surgery, and other disciplines, offering integrated outpatient clinics, MDT discussions, joint ward rounds, a 24-hour green channel for outpatient biopsy, and same-day rapid frozen section diagnosis, among other services.

In terms of scientific research, the department had undertaken 10 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation and 16 provincial and ministerial-level projects, with over 240 SCI papers published with a total impact factor exceeding 750. The department holds more than 20 utility model patents with 2 patents translated into practice. It has led and participated in 6 expert consensus and guidelines, as well as over 20 clinical trials of drugs and devices and served as the editor of 4 monographs.

The department head also serves as the vice president of the Orthopedic Branch of Shanghai Medical Doctor Association, the deputy leader of the Bone Oncology Group of the Bone Tumor and Bone Metastasis Cancer Special Committee of the China Anti-Cancer Association, the deputy chair of the Sarcoma Professional Committee of Shanghai Anti-Cancer Association, the standing member of the Bone Oncology Group of the Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Association of China, the chair of the Bone and Soft Tissue Tumor Professional Committee of the China Primary Health Care Foundation, and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Bone Oncology, Chinese Journal of Bone and Joint Injury, and as the secretary of the editorial board of International Journal of Orthopedics.

The department undertakes undergraduate and postgraduate eight-year program, and graduate teaching tasks for Shanghai Jiao tong University, School of Medicine. It has 2 doctoral and 3 master's supervisors, having trained a total of 34 students and postdoctoral fellows. Each year, two national continuing education courses are hosted: the ‘Shanghai Advanced Seminar on Limb-Salvage Treatment of Osteosarcoma’ and ‘Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment of Bone Tumors and Diseases Based on Clinical Cases’.

By October 2024, it was renamed the Department of Bone Oncology & Diseases Surgery. As a large-scale comprehensive diagnosis and treatment center for bone and soft tissue tumors and difficult bone diseases in China, this discipline will continue to be committed to the comprehensive development of medical research and provide first-class services for patients.