Meet the experts

Dr Sylvie Bonvalot is an oncological surgeon specializing in soft-tissue sarcomas at Institut Curie, in Paris, where she currently heads the Visceral and sarcoma Surgery Department. She is an Associate Professor at the Collège de Medécine des hôpitaux de Paris.
Sylvia Bonvalot has specialized in surgery of sarcoma and complex tumors for around twenty years; before joining Institut Curie, she worked at Gustave Roussy from 1994 to 2015.
She coordinates several international studies on sarcoma or complex tumors of the abdomen and soft tissues of the limbs, and sits on the scientific boards of several French and European medical patient organizations or associations.
She is an active member of the French sarcoma group and of several European societies (including ESSO, ESMO and EORTC). She has standardized and published surgical sarcoma techniques in international journals, and is the author of over 170 articles on the subject.

Dr. Mrinal Gounder, MD is a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. He specializes in developing new drugs in cancer with a specific focus in sarcoma; a rare and devastating cancer that affects children, adolescents and adults. His research focuses on understanding the molecular biology of cancer and translating these findings into new drugs for cancer patients. He is the international study chair for several clinical trials and serves as a scientific advisor for the FDA and several pharmaceutical companies. He collaborates with patient advocacy groups and serves as the Scientific Director of the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation and on the Medical Advisory Board of the Chordoma Foundation. His work is internationally known and has published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, Nature Medicine and others. His research contributions to rare cancers was recognized as the top ten Advances of the Year in 2018 in the field of oncology.

Dr. George D. Demetri is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Demetri received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College and medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1983, then went on to Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle. He then completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he has served as an Attending Physician since 1989. He is also an affiliate investigator with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
Dr. Demetri’s research and clinical interests have focused on the translation of scientific discoveries into targeted drugs for the management of sarcomas as a model for solid tumor research and development. This work has led to the development of the oral drug Gleevec as an effective treatment for the gastrointestinal sarcoma known as GIST, and is continuing with the research leading to the new multi-targeted agent SU11248 for GIST resistant to Gleevec.
A fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Demetri is a member of many professional societies and editorial boards of scientific journals. He is a member the Board of Directors of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society and a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Sarcoma Foundation of America. He has been instrumental in raising awareness of issues relating to drug development and sarcoma research by his activities on the Internet, and he founded a non-profit educational site for sarcoma patients and their families.

Dr. Maki is a medical oncologist who has focused for over 20 years to understand tumors arising from connective tissues, which include sarcomas and other aggressive tumors that do not metastasize, such as desmoid tumors. These tumors represent less than 1% of all cancers that happen in adults. I work with patients with these diagnoses to find the right treatment for the 70 or more types of bone and soft tissue sarcomas and other soft tissue tumors. As part of this work, I also reserach new medications for cancer in general, a field called developmental therapeutics.

In my research, I seek to find new medications that may be useful for sarcoma patients, and try to figure out why they work or not. I work closely with colleagues at Penn Medicine, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and with other national and international teams of researchers such as SARC, the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration, to improve the understanding and treatment of sarcomas.

Dr. Jonathan C. Trent earned his MD and PhD in cancer biology from The University of Texas Health
Science Center where he also completed a residency in internal medicine. He then completed a
fellowship in medical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center while serving
as chief fellow. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, he
held an appointment as associate professor of medicine in the Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology,
Division of Cancer Medicine at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr.
Trent is currently the Associate Director for Clinical Research, the Director of the Bone and Soft-tissue
Sarcoma Group and Medical Director of the Precision Medicine Initiative at the Sylvester Comprehensive
Cancer Center.
Dr. Trent’s interests are in the clinical and translational research of sarcomas, direct care of sarcoma
patients, and education about sarcoma. As Associate Director for Clinical Research, his goal is to help
Sylvester Faculty develop clinical trials that provide clinically effective and scientifically exciting therapy
to cancer patients of South Florida and beyond.
The major focus of his clinical, educational and research efforts are with gastrointestinal stromal tumor
(GIST), chondrosarcoma, and other sarcomas. The major efforts of Dr. Trent’s research focus on
understanding the mechanisms of action and resistance of imatinib in GIST and other sarcomas while
striving toward improved therapeutic options. His work involves the use of novel
preoperative/postoperative clinical trials, prospectively acquired tumor tissue, cell lines, archival tissue, as
well as collaborations with disciplines such as the genomics facility, surgical oncology, pathology,
radiology and interventional radiology.

Sebastian Bauer (MD) underwent his medical training at the University of Würzburg, Germany and his resisdency and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He is committed to clinical care, clinical research and translational, lab-based research in sarcomas. He is Professor of Translational Oncology (Personalized Cancer Therapy) at the Dept. of Medical Oncology,  University Hospital Essen as well as Director of the Sarcoma Center at the West German Tumor Center, one of the largest sarcoma programs in Europe. Dr. Bauer has served as principal investigator in more than 50 clinical trials in bone, soft-tissue sarcomas, including gastrointestinal stromal tumors. His research group is focused on model development,  resistance mechanisms to targeted treatments (primarily in GIST) and academic drug development. He is member of the steering committee of the German Sarcoma Study Group (AIO), member of the EORTC (STBSG) and board member of the German Sarcoma Foundation. He has in the past served as ESMO sarcoma track chair and is currently member of the sarcoma sub-committee. He is a regular reviewer for cancer-related journals and sarcoma meetings (CTOS, ESMO).

Robin Jones is a medical oncologist specialising in the treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas and Head of the Sarcoma Unit at The Royal Marsden. He has experience in conducting Phase I, II and III trials, as well translational studies in sarcomas. Professor Jones trained in medical oncology at The Royal Marsden and between 2010 and 2014 he was Head of the Sarcoma Program at the University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. His main research interest focuses on clinical trials and translational research in sarcomas

A medical oncologist, Silvia Stacchiotti works in the Adult Mesenchymal and Rare Tumor Medical Treatment
Unit, Cancer Medicine Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori (INT), Milano, Italy.
Dr Silvia Stacchiotti received his medical degree in 1993 in Milan, and trained at the INT. She is board
certified in Medical Oncology. She has four children.
She is involved in all institutional research activities on adult bone and soft tissue sarcomas (STS), including
GIST. This includes neoadjuvant therapies in extremities and retroperitoneal STS, identification of new
targets and new anticancer treatments for specific sarcoma types, studies on the immune-profile of
sarcomas as well as on mechanisms of resistance to therapy and the development of preclinical models of
sarcomas. She collaborates to the Italian Network on Rare Tumors. She is particularly dedicated to ultra-rare
sarcomas, among which chordoma, chondrosarcoma, giant cell tumor of the bone, extraskeletal myxoid
chondrosarcoma, alveolar soft part sarcoma, clear cell sarcoma, dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, solitary
fibrous tumor, PEComa, vascular tumors, epithelioid sarcoma, desmoid tumor, tenosynovial giant cell tumor.
She is the Principal Investigator of several Italian and International trials on sarcomas. She is the current
president of the Italian Sarcoma Group (ISG). She is the faculty coordinator of the Sarcoma track of the
European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the subject editor of the ESMO guidelines committee
for sarcoma and GIST. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Connective Tissue Oncology
Society (CTOS). She is included in the list of European Medical Agency (EMA) external experts. She is the
chair of the systemic therapy subcommittee of the EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group. She
collaborates with several sarcoma Patients Advocacy Groups, among which the Chordoma Foundation, the
Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation, the EHE Foundation, in which she serves as a member of the
respective medical advisory boards.
She has authored more than 200 scientific publications. She serves on the editorial board of European
Journal of Cancer and Cancer

Alessandro Gronchi MD received his MD degree from Milan University (high honors) in 1992, and then completed his residency training in General Surgery at the San Raffaele General Hospital – Milan. During his residency he served for 2 years at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working full time at the Lacor University Hospital in Gulu – Uganda. He then completed his training with a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute – Milan – Italy in 1998. He visited Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York in 2002. He has been chair of the Sarcoma Service at the National Cancer Institute – Milan – Italy since 2001. He holds the National Scientific qualification for full professor of General Surgery.

He runs the Sarcoma data base of the National Cancer Institute, which gathers clinical and biological information on over 10000 patients affected by soft tissue sarcoma (STS), desmoid-fibromatosis (DF) and GIST, treated over the past 3 decades in Milan. He is involved in all institutional research activities on sarcoma, which include neoadjuvant therapies in extremity and retroperitoneal sarcomas, new targets for specific STS subtypes, different telomere maintenance mechanisms in STS subtypes, genomic characterization of DF and mechanisms of resistance to therapy in GIST. He is the Principal Investigator of several Italian and International trials on STS, DF and GIST.

He serves as member of the board of directors of the Italian Sarcoma Group (ISG), president of the Italian Society of Surgical Oncology (SICO) 2019-2021, member of the Sarcoma Disease Site Working Group of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2018-2021, member of the board of directors of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO) 2020-2022; international representative on the executive council of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2021-2023; member of the Sarcoma Task Force of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). He was chair of the EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group (2015-2017), president of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (2016); international representative on the nominating committee of the Society of Surgical Oncology (2019-2020). He is member of the European Surgical Association (ESA), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and is honorary member of the Polish Society of Surgical Oncology (PSSO). He is one of the initiators of a global collaborative effort on retroperitoneal sarcoma (Trans-atlantic Australasian RetroPeritoneal Sarcoma Working Group, TARPSWG), which involves over 150 institutions worldwide. Dr. Gronchi has authored more than 430 scientific publications (Scopus HIndex 77), serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Surgical Oncology, Annals of Surgical Oncology, Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, Tumori Journal, Sarcoma Journal, Clinical Sarcoma Research.

Prof. Dr. Eva Wardelmann received her Doctor of Medicine in 1992. In 1997, she passed the state board examinations for pathology and received her Vienna Legendi in “Anatomical and Surgical Pathology” at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn, Germany, in 2004. She is Chair of the Gerhard-Domagk-Institute of Pathology at the University Hospital Munster, Germany since 2013. She serves as reference pathologist for the GIST and Sarcoma Registry Munster, for the German Interdisciplinary Sarcoma Group (GISG), for the Soft tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group of the EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer) and for the SSG (Scandinavian Sarcoma Group as well as for several IITs. She is visiting professor at the Yerevan State Medical University in Armenia.

Rick L.M. Haas is a soft tissue sarcoma focused radiation-oncologist from the NKI-AVL in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,where he works for almost 25 years as a staff member of the Department of Radiotherapy.
He is an active member of CTOS (Board of Directors 2015-2017), the EORTC-STBSG (President of the Local Treatment Subcommittee), and the Sarcoma Patients Euronet (SPAEN) Patient Advocacy Organization (Medical Advisory Board).He is also a member of the Board of EMSOS and a Faculty Member of the ESMO initiated World Sarcoma Network.
His current research interests focus mainly on sarcomas where he has initiated several clinical phase I (NCT01985295), II (NCT02575066, NCT02106312) and III trials (NCT01344018).Dr Rick Haashas authored or co-authored over 100 scientific papers as well as contributed to several books on sarcomas and lymphomas.

Piotr Rutkowsky is is Professor of Surgical Oncology and currently heads the Department of Soft Tissue/Bone Sarcoma and Melanoma at Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute – Oncology Center in Warsaw, where he acts also as Plenipotentiary of Head Director for Clinical Trials and VicePresident of Scientific Council.
He obtained his medical degree from the Medical University of Lodz, Poland and received his PhD, in 2001, from the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology for his work on cytokine levels in patients with soft tissue and bone sarcomas.
Prof Rutkowski is vice President of the Sarcoma Subdomain of EUROCAN (European network for Rare adult solid Cancer) and an active member of the EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group, where he chaired the Local Treatment Subcommittee and the Membership Committee of the EORTC Board. He is a former member of Board of Directors of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS).
Dr Rutkowski has authored or co-authored over 140 scientific papers in Polish and international journals, and is co-author of national and international recommendations for sarcoma and melanoma.

Florence Duffaud (MD, PhD) underwent medical training and completed her medical oncology fellowship and residency at the University of Medicine of Marseilles, France. She completed a one-year fellowship at the EORTC data centre in Brussels.
She is currently a Professor of Oncology at the University of Medicine of Marseilles, at Aix-Marseilles University (AMU), and the head of the medical Oncology Unit at La Timone University Hospital, in Marseilles. Her research interests are focused on novel therapies, and novel therapeutic strategies on soft tissues sarcoma, bone sarcoma and GISTs. She has led and/or developed multiple investigational clinical trials for soft tissues and bone sarcomas and GISTs as, principal investigator or site principal investigator.
She serves on the French Sarcoma Group (FSG) board and is a member of the FSG and of the soft tissue and bone sarcoma group (STBSG) of the EORTC. She is reviewer for several oncological journals.