Nicholas J. Petrelli, MD, FACS, Consulting Editor

The last issue of the Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America that dealt with soft tissue sarcomas was in April of 2002, where the guest editor was John M. Kane, MD from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. In that issue, Dr Raut had contributed an article devoted to limb salvage and the role of amputation for extremity soft tissue sarcomas. Dr Raut’s experience with sarcomas makes him well qualified to be the guest editor of this issue of Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America .

Dr Raut has assembled an outstanding group of physicians to discuss this topic. When it comes to treating patients with the diagnosis of sarcoma, there is no question that it is imperative that the patient be approached by a multidisciplinary team. Dr Raut has brought together experts in the field of radiology, surgical oncology, pathology, radiation oncology, and medical oncology to discuss this important topic. For example, there is an excellent article discussing refinements in sarcoma classification by Drs Vickie Y. Jo and Leona A. Doyle from the Department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The article on imaging in soft tissue sarcomas by Dr Jyothi P. Jagannathan and associates from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute describes the challenge of differentiating benign and malignant soft tissue tumors as well as the various histologic subtypes of sarcoma on imaging.

Last, the article on “Retroperitoneal Sarcomas: Fact, Opinion, and Controversy” by Rebecca Gladdy and associates has an extensive discussion on the diagnostic challenges of retroperitoneal sarcomas and their management. Outcomes and recurrence are also described in detail in a section in this article.

I would like to thank Dr Chandrajit Raut for this excellent issue of the Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America and his colleagues for taking the time to complete outstanding articles on this subject.