The book covers the common clinical scenarios encountered for the heterogeneous group of bone and soft tissue tumors. Each chapter follows a uniform format of an illustrative patient case summary representative of each type of sarcoma, followed by an evidence-based case discussion reviewing the current guidelines and basis for the diagnostic and therapeutic steps taken. The book includes histology inserts to highlight the classic features of various types of sarcoma, alongside with the accompanying auxiliary molecular tests to aid the diagnosis and their clinical implications.
The book provides assistance to medical practitioners, trainees and students to better understand the various types of sarcomas from the importance of an accurate diagnosis to the management principles, as well as controversies in the treatment of these rare tumors. It will be relevant for pathologists and oncologists as well as all other clinicians (general, medical, surgery, radiology) that have a special interest in bone and soft tissue tumor.
A/Prof. Victor Lee Kwan Min is a senior consultant pathologist in National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) and Department of Pathology, National University Hospital, (NUH), Singapore. He graduated from the University of Melbourne and did post-graduate pathology training in leading tertiary hospital and health centers in Australia. He obtained his fellowship from the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 2003. He is active in research especially in the fields of Wnt signaling pathway, molecular pathology, bone and soft tissue tumors.
He has been awarded a number of national and hospital research grants to support his research specifically in sarcomas.
Dr Mark Puhaindran graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1998, and obtained his specialist accreditation in hand surgery in 2007. Following this, he was awarded the Health Manpower Development (HMDP) Award and did a fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, US.
He has been practicing hand surgery and musculoskeletal oncology at the National University Hospital, Singapore since completing his fellowship, and has a particular interest in nerve tumors and tumors that affect the upper extremity. He was the Tumour Programme Lead for Musculoskeletal Oncology / Sarcoma at the National University Cancer Institute and Head of the Division of the Division of Musculoskeletal Oncology at the National University Hospital, Singapore.
Dr Choo Bok Ai is a Senior radiation oncologist and practices at Icon Cancer Centre. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen, UK in 1998 and obtained postgraduate medicine qualification from the Royal College of Physicians in 2002. He completed his clinical oncology training in 2007 in Birmingham, UK, and is a fellow of the UK Royal College of Radiologists. He is a fellow in the Academy of Medicine Singapore and served as chairman of Chapter of Radiation Oncology from 2018 to 2022. He was treasurer of Singapore Society of Oncology in 2011 and Assistant Professor in Medicine at the National University of Singapore, from 2011-2018. His subspeciality interests are in breast, gynecological, prostate, head and neck, skin and sarcoma cancers. He set up the first MRI based cervical interstitial and intracavity brachytherapy in Singapore during his tenure at National University Hospital from 2009-2018, and has taught at various postgraduate teaching courses. He was a lecturer at the Singapore Institute of Technology in the Radiation Therapist Program. He has published 30 peer review articles and wrote a book chapter on research in the Encyclopedia of Radiation Oncology. He was the principal investigator in 3 clinical trials and co-investigator in 9. Currently he is the Vice President in the Breast Cancer Foundation Singapore and sits in the committee advisory in the Rehabilitation unit of Singapore Cancer Society. He set up the National Cancer Institute Singapore Head and Neck Cancer Support Group in 2010, Singapore Sarcoma Support Group in 2016 and founded the Dream Maker initiative to grant wishes to the terminally ill. In 2018, he received the Healthcare Humanity award and a medal from the President of Singapore with an honourable mention for his cancer supportive care work.
Dr Angela Pang is currently a senior medical oncology consultant with the OncoCare Cancer Centre, Singapore in Gleneagles Hospital and Mount Elizabeth Hospital. She is also a visiting consultant with the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore. Her subspecialty interests are in muscoskeletal oncology and gastrointestional (GI) oncology.
Dr Pang graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Medicine and obtained her postgraduate qualifications - Masters in medicine (internal medicine) from NUS, and was awarded her membership with the Royal College of Physicians (UK). Subsequently, she went on to complete her specialist training in Medical oncology in the National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore and was awarded the National University Cancer Institute (NCIS) scholarship for her Sarcoma Research fellowship with Professor Robert G Maki in the Tisch Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
Dr Pang has several peer reviewed publications and has presented at multiple international conferences. She was also actively involved in education at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSOM), NUS and NUH respectively, and had been awarded for teaching excellence.
Dr. James TPD Hallinan has been practicing in Singapore since 2008 and is a Senior Consultant at the Department of Diagnostic Imaging, National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore. Currently serving as the head of the Musculoskeletal (MSK) division and previously overseeing MRI services, Dr. Hallinan obtained his medical degree (MBChB) from Bristol University in the United Kingdom and completed his radiology training at NUH. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, UK, with subspecialty interests in musculoskeletal and neuroradiology.
In 2018, he completed his subspecialist training in musculoskeletal MRI at the University of California, San Diego, under the mentorship of Professor Donald Resnick. Dr. Hallinan is an integral part of the "Spine AI" team, focusing on artificial intelligence to support clinical diagnosis in MRI and CT spine imaging. He has been awarded National Medical Research Council (NMRC) grants as a principal investigator for imaging AI projects, including the NMRC New Investigator Grant (CS-IRG-NIG, 2021) titled “Deep Learning Pathway for the Management of Spine Metastases” and the NMRC Clinician Innovator Award (2023) titled “Deep Learning Pipeline for Augmented Reporting of MRI Whole Spine.”
Dr. Hallinan has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in musculoskeletal radiology and neuroradiology. He is actively involved in teaching at NUH and the National University of Singapore (NUS), with research interests in advanced imaging techniques and the integration of artificial intelligence in medical imaging.
