The team approach has helped Joel Mayerson, MD, build one of the nation’s largest and best sarcoma cancer programs. Treating sarcoma patients “is a team sport,” said the director of the James Sarcoma Program. “And we use tri-modality care – medical oncologists for chemotherapy, radiation oncologists for soft-tissue sarcomas … and surgeons.” Mayerson has been at the James since 2001 and, under his leadership, the sarcoma team has grown significantly. The tri-modality model of patient care is the starting point for the sarcoma program. “We’re very excited about our [growing] orthopedics plastic surgery program,” Mayerson said, adding plastic surgery is vital in patients in which large, cancerous masses are removed. “Plastic surgeons take muscles from other places [in the patient’s body] and fill these spaces and can even return function by reconnecting the nerves,” he said. Mayerson and the James are also pioneers in targeted muscle reinnervation. This microsurgery technique reconnects nerves severed during an amputation so that “now they have something to fire into rather than into empty space,” Mayerson said. “This helps reduce pain and after surgery and also reduces phantom-limb pain.” Another advanced technique for patients requiring an amputation is inserting a metal stem into the “residual limb … so the patient can snap their artificial limb on and off instead of putting it into a socket,” Mayerson said. “Patients say this makes it feel more like their normal leg.” Mayerson has always been passionate about caring for his patients, but, “it became even more personal for me this past January,” he said. His mother was diagnosed with a late-stage soft-tissue sarcoma and passed away a few weeks later. “If it wasn’t already personal enough, now it’s family.”