There are many types of surgical oncologists and they are usually classified according to the part of the body that they operate on. For example, a surgical thoracic oncologist is a surgeon who operates on cancer in the chest and lung area. Your surgeon should be board-certified and experienced with the type of sarcoma that you have. Qualified radiation oncologists, certified by the American Board of Therapeutic Radiology, use radiation rays to destroy cancer cells or alter their metabolism so as to hinder their ability to function normally. Radiation therapy is used on cancers, including sarcomas, where there is a selective ability for the radiation to destroy the cancer cells while allowing the nearby adjacent normal cells to repair themselves from the injury.
Nurses work in the hospital setting as well as the outpatient clinic and doctor's office settings.
Oncology nurses have specialized training in delivering chemotherapy, handling intravenous lines, managing side effects from treatment, managing pain and providing counseling and education. Most of the time it is the nurse who delivers the chemotherapy and other medications ordered by your oncologists. Nurses have a wide variety of skills and expertise and are often the members of the healthcare time that patients have the most access to during their treatments. Nurses are valuable resources and can answer many questions. Therefore, it is vitally important that the pathologist has special training and skill in the evaluation of sarcomas.