The department was founded in 1979, and is the first specialized department for treatment of bone and soft tissue tumor in China.

The department of bone and soft tissue tumor has 45 beds; the faculty is composed of 2 clinical professors, 1 chief surgeon, and 3 associate chief surgeons. The number of OPD patients is about 5,000 per year. A total of 600 patients were hospitalized and 435 of them received operation in 2003.

More than 2,000 inpatients from all parts of China were treated in the department and this accumulates precious clinical experience in a various treatments of the diseases, such as bone malignancies, soft tissue sarcomas and cancer with osseous metastasis. The clinical characteristics of the department are as follows: a, HAP (hyperthermic antiplastic perfusion) operation, which is used to increase the limb-salvage possibilities in bone malignancies, soft tissue sarcomas and malignant melanomas, where the local high-dose hyperthermic treatment and then following systemic chemotherapy are conducted. b, Multi-modality procedures in the limb-salvage treatment: neoadjuvant chemotherapy (preoperative chemotherapy), local perfusion, tumor resection and postoperative chemotherapy are performed. Eighty percent of patients with limb bone malignancies received the limb-salvage operation by means of tumor-bone segment inactivation, prosthesis and reconstruction, etc. c, Reconstruction after wide resection in soft tissue sarcoma: in some recurrent sarcomas and anatomically complicated sites, the postoperative defect could be repaired with the transplantation of artificial vessels, the displacement of muscular tendons and the translocation of isolated or vascular pedicle flaps. d, afterloading radiotherapy and external

irradiation; 125I seed embedding: applied when the important vascular and nerves are involved, which acquires better therapeutic effect and a decrease in amputation rate. e, interventional saccule for temporary interruption of the arteries: applied for the operation of sacral and pelvic tumors to reduce bleeding and lower the risk of operations. An intraoperative digital subtraction X-ray laser orientation is applied to facilitate operational procedures by precise orientation in some anatomically complicated sites. f, The treatment of cancer with osseous metastasis: different inner fixation is applied for different parts of the vertebral column which improves patients’ quality of life and prolonged the survivals.