The new steering committee of the Italian Sarcoma Group, a non-profit association involved in sarcoma research, has been appointed. The director of the Osteo-oncology, bone and soft tissue sarcomas and innovative therapies Unit at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute, Toni Ibrahim, has been appointed vice-president of the association.

The committee includes four other professionals from the Rizzoli Institute with different medical specialities, a sign that research into the treatment and cure of sarcomas requires a specific multidisciplinary approach: Giuseppe Bianchi, MD of the Orthopaedic Oncology Clinic, Marco Gambarotti, the head of Pathological Anatomy and Histology Unit, Daniela Sabbi, a nurse from the Osteo-oncology ward, and Katia Scotlandi, who heads the Institute's Experimental Oncology Laboratory.

The Association - which was formally established in 2002 but started as a working group in 1997 - aims to improve the care of sarcoma patients by personalising treatment, defining therapeutic and diagnostic protocols, increasing knowledge of the pathogenesis and progression of the tumour through research protocols and informing the public in order to contribute to an early diagnosis of the disease.

The Italian Sarcoma Group promotes collaborative relationships with national and international institutions, encourages research activities in the field of sarcomas involving various professional figures and disseminating the knowledge acquired to reach a common standard of treatment.