Members of the Sarcoma Service at Huntsman Cancer Institute are involved with other major sarcoma centers dedicated to being on the leading edge of understanding and treating this unusual type of cancer. Affiliations include the National Cancer Institute and National Comprehensive Cancer Network among many others. Our sarcoma specialists are members of many national and international cancer societies including the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, Children's Oncology Group and Southwestern Oncology Group.

Members of our sarcoma team are also active participants in HCI Community Outreach Program, enabling us to better interact with physicians throughout the Intermountain area. This translates into improved care for patients in the western United States. Our patients travel from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming and beyond to receive care of their soft tissue and bone tumor by the HCI Sarcoma Service.

Sarcoma Surgery

R. Lor Randall, MD, FACS, is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sarcoma treatment and director of Huntsman Cancer Institute's Sarcoma Service. Sarcomas are an unusual group of cancers that arise from connective tissue, including bone, fat, muscle, nerve sheaths, blood vessels, tendons, and cartilage. Because these tumors can affect all ages, he treats both children and adults. The Sarcoma Service is an interdisciplinary team comprised of surgeons, radiation therapists, oncologists, pain specialists, nurse practitioners, and social workers. Among his academic responsibilities, Randall is chief of the Sarcoma Array Research Consortium (SARC) lab, a state-of-the-art facility investigating the molecular genetic mechanisms that give rise to sarcomas.

Randall also directs the metastatic bone disease program, a clinical service dedicated to developing new treatment to manage cancers that have spread from other organs to the bone. He pioneered the use of kyphoplasty, which was developed in 1998 to treat "dowager's hump," to relieve the pain of spinal compression fractures in patients with multiple myeloma and other cancers that have spread to bone. Kyphoplasty involves inserting a tiny balloon into the collapsed section of the spine and inflating it. The balloon is then removed and bone cement inserted into the open space. He was the first surgeon in the Intermountain West to use other minimally invasive techniques such as radiofrequency ablation to treat tumors of bone.

Randall came to Huntsman Cancer Institute in 1998 from The University of Washington, where he completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine in 1992 and completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Randall's clinical and research efforts have been recognized internationally. Amongst his honors, he is the recipient of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons' Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Scholar Award and has been invited as a prestigious American-British-Canadian Traveling Fellow. He is a member of several national and international oncology societies including the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Connective Tissue Oncology Society, Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, Children's Oncology Group and Southwest Oncology Group. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and is the author of numerous scientific manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts in the field of sarcoma surgery and biology.

General Surgery

Robert Andtbacka, MD, CM, is an assistant professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine and a surgeon and investigator with Intermountain Healthcare and Huntsman Cancer Institute.

He specializes in surgery for melanoma, soft tissue sarcomas, and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. His research interests include novel techniques to identify how melanoma spreads through the lymph and vascular systems; resistance to targeted therapies in soft tissue sarcomas, including gastrointestinal stromal tumors; and novel therapeutics for solid tumors. In addition, he participates in multi-center clinical trials designed to improve diagnosis and treatments for cancer patients.

Andtbacka received his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he also completed a residency in general surgery. Before joining the University of Utah, he completed a three-year fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Head and Neck Surgery

Brandon G. Bentz, MD, Brandon Bentz, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology in the University of Utah's School of Medicine. He is also a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator.

He completed his residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Northwestern University Medical Center and his fellowship in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Bentz’s clinical interests include, among other conditions, the surgical management of sarcomas that arise from the head and neck. Dr. Bentz also has a significant research interest in the biology of cancer cells, and in particular exploring the intricacies of nitric oxide biology in cancer.

Medical Oncology

Lei Chen, MD, PhD is a professor in the Division of Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She is also an investigator and medical oncologist with special interests in sarcoma and gastrointestinal cancer at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Her research interests include oncogene signal transduction (a biological process that creates functional changes within the cell leading to malignancy), mechanisms of drug resistance, and searching for new targets for cancer therapy. One of her current clinical pursuits involves designing innovative clinical trials that combine targeted therapy and immunotherapy to eradicate drug-resistant cells and tumor stem cells, with the hope for durable remission or cure. Chen has numerous publications and invited articles in translational and clinical sarcoma research.

Chen received her PhD in biochemistry from City University of New York and her medical degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She completed a residency at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center and an oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Before joining Huntsman Cancer Institute in 2006, she served as a faculty member at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas.

Pathology

Cheryl M. Coffin, MD, is a professor of pathology, and adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She also serves vice president for pediatric pathology of ARUP Laboratories, a national reference laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is division head of pediatric pathology and medical director of pathology services at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

Coffin is a surgical pathologist whose academic career had focused on pediatric neoplasia, and soft tissue tumors. She has authored more than 65 peer reviewed papers and was lead co-editor of Pediatric Soft Tissue Tumors, published by Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, in 1997.

Radiation Oncology

Ying Hitchcock, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, specializing in head, neck, and skin cancers and in sarcomas. She treats all forms of cancer in her practice.

Dr. Hitchcock received a medical degree from the Peking Union Medical College Graduate School in Beijing, China, where she specialized in head and neck surgery. She completed an internship in general surgery at the State University of New York at Buffalo Graduate Medical-Dental Education Consortium in Buffalo and residency in radiation oncology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, also in Buffalo.

Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Stephen Lessnick, MD, PhD, a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and assistant professor of pediatrics, sees pediatric patients with cancer at Primary Children's Medical Center. His research focuses on the molecular basis of pediatric cancer development.

The Lessnick lab studies Ewing's sarcoma as a model for pediatric tumor development. Ewing's sarcoma is a prototypical tumor that has a peak incidence in the teenage years. A chromosomal translocation (an abnormality that occurs when chromosomes break and the fragments rejoin to other chromosomes) characterizes Ewing's sarcoma. Learning details of how the cancer-causing protein created by this translocation functions could help resolve questions about the differences between pediatric and adult tumors, and between sarcomas and other forms of cancer. Additionally, the Lessnick lab is interested in developing new therapeutic interventions for children with cancer that might be identified through their research.

Dr. Lessnick earned his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University, followed by MD and PhD degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). He conducted his internship and residency at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, followed by a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital. His fellowship/postdoctoral research was performed in the Pediatric Oncology Department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Lessnick joined HCI in January 2004.

General Surgery

Courtney Scaife, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology.

Dr. Scaife specializes in cancers of the gastrointestinal tract; including the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, colon, and rectum; as well as intra-abdominal sarcomas. Her research interests include the mechanisms of metastases in colorectal and pancreatic cancers, new approaches to early diagnosis, and cell-to-cell signaling. In addition, she is studying methods to improve patient outcomes and participating in multi-center clinical trials designed to improve the standard of care for cancer patients.

Dr. Scaife received her medical degree from the University of Wisconsin Medical School and completed a general surgery residency at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics. She completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Neurosurgery/Spinal Oncology

Meic H. Schmidt, MD, is a member of the brain tumor research team at Huntsman Cancer Institute, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Utah and the Director of the Spinal Oncology Division within the department. He is a neurosurgeon who specializes in the treatment of primary and metastatic spine tumors, spinal cord tumors, and brain tumors. In his practice, he encourages his patients to actively participate in choosing the best treatment by helping them learn about their disease.

Schmidt's research interests include investigating the benefits of minimally invasive spinal surgery for metastatic tumors and the development of spinal radiosurgery techniques. He is also interested in tumor biology, as well as the basic science and clinical application of laser surgery using light sensitive drugs for primary and metastatic brain tumors and spinal cord tumors. In April of 2000, the NASA Space Technology Hall of Fame awarded him the Space Technology Research Award for his work using LED technology in the photodynamic therapy of cancer.

Schmidt received his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed a neurological surgery residency there. He received further training through an NIH training grant in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, where he was appointed to back-to-back fellowships in neuro-oncology and spinal surgery.

Pain and Palliative Care

Sharon Weinstein, MD, is board certified by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Neurology and Oncology. She is Faculty Scholar of the Project on Death in America, on the Executive Committee of the Partnership to Improve Care at the End of Life in Utah, and on the Board of the Rocky Mountain Candlelighters.

Weinstein recently accepted an invitation to serve on the Advisory Council of the Utah Department of Health's "Promoting H.O.P.E. (Hope and Optimal Palliative Efforts) for Utah Children." With funding from the federal Health Care Financing Administration, the Department of Health has embarked on a planning process to develop an 1115 waiver to expand Medicaid eligibility and services to children with life-threatening illness and to partner with other groups to effect changes to improve end-of-life care for the larger pediatric population. The mission of "Promoting HOPE for Utah Children" is to make coordinated, holistic care and services accessible to children in Utah with a life-threatening (limiting) illness and to preserve the quality of life of the child and family throughout the illness and beyond.

SARC Lab

David E. Joyner, PhD, is supervisor of the Sarcoma Array Research Consortium (SARC) Laboratory at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He is responsible for all SARC Lab research activities, including sarcoma gene expression profiling using microarray technology, in vivo/ in vitro studies, and projects exploring the molecular genetics of sarcomas. Joyner’s primary interests include the process of programmed cell death (apoptosis), genetic and physiological traits conferring a “competitive advantage” to cancer cells in a normal-cell environment, molecular genetics, and the implementation of microarray technology in cancer research.

Joyner has been involved in cancer research since joining the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1984. He received his baccalaureate and Master of Science in Zoology from the University of Utah, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Zoology/Ecology) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to his affiliation with the School of Medicine, he taught in the Departments of Zoology at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) and at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He is currently a Research Instructor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Research Nurse

Susie received her RN diploma from Hillcrest Medical Center, Tulsa Oklahoma, and her BS from College of St. Frances, Joliet, Illinois. With over 30 years experience in Operating Room, Trauma and Critical Care, she currently works as an O. R. nurse at University of Utah Health Science Center, and as study coordinator with the Sarcoma Service at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

She was principle investigator and author of "Utilization of Time in the Operating Room" and co-investigator for an Association of Operating Room Nurses congressional scientific presentation, studying skin preperation techniques immediately prior to surgery. As Study Coordinator for the Sarcoma Service, she conforms to Institutional Review Board and Clinical Cancer Investigations Committee guidelines and is an active participant in the Clinical Coordinator Research Organization.

SARC Lab

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