Annual Report 2020
Department of Musculoskeletal Oncology and Rehabilitation
Akira Kawai, Fumihiko Nakatani, Eisuke Kobayashi, Shintaro Iwata, Syuhei Osaki, Suguru Fukushima, Makoto Nakagawa, Junya Ueno, Yoshie Ino, Yu Koishiwara, Tsuyoshi Harada, Nobuko Konishi, Mai Takahashi, Keiko Sato, Kanako Miyazaki, Motoki Tanaka
Introduction
The team in the Department of Musculoskeletal Oncology and Rehabilitation of NCCHE consists of a panel of orthopedic surgeons and rehabilitation professionals that started in 2012. We strive to provide expert interdisciplinary care for a variety of benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors and tumor-like conditions, and we also provide comprehensive rehabilitation services. Currently, we have four orthopedic surgeons and five rehabilitation staff members engaging in the treatment of a variety of patients with the aid of other orthopedic staff members from NCCHE.
The Team and What We Do
Our outpatient service is generally open two days a week (Wednesdays and Fridays) for patients with a variety of musculoskeletal tumors or cancer patients who need rehabilitation care. We also manage patients who suffer from bone metastases and other orthopedic diseases consulted form other cancer specialists on daily basis. To provide prosthetic and orthotic care to our patients, a special outpatient service is open every Friday. In cases where patients require multidisciplinary treatment approaches, we offer appropriate referral to NCCH for further treatments. In September 2014, we opened the spacious rehabilitation unit with available equipment for reducing the common side effects of cancer treatment, including fatigue, weakness, poor endurance, pain, nausea, anxiety, depression and loss of confidence. As a result, we have advanced the rehabilitation of patients in 2020 (Table 1).
Research activities
We have been focusing on regional cooperation with the local physiotherapists of the Kashiwa City to provide cancer patients in the community with seamless rehabilitative care after invasive cancer operations. We have collaboratively established the standard methods of physiotherapy and functional evaluations.
Clinical trials
1. A multi-institutional Phase III clinical trial of multi-drug adjuvant chemotherapy for osteosarcomas (The Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG 0905)) since 2010.
2. A multi-institutional Phase III clinical trial of multi-drug adjuvant chemotherapy for osteosarcomas (JCOG 1306) since 2014.
3. A multi-institutional Phase III clinical trial of preoperative denosumab for giant cell tumor (JCOG 1610) since 2017.
4. A multi-institutional randomized Phase II clinical trial of second-line chemotherapy for advanced soft tissue sarcoma (JCOG 1802) since 2019.
Table 1. Characteristics and number of patients enrolled for rehabilitation. 
Education
We have been engaging in several educational lectures for the medical staff to emphasize the importance of rehabilitation for cancer treatment. We also provide instructional lectures to the medical staff in the community.
Future Prospects
The recent evolution of cancer treatment increases the demands for the orthopedic care and rehabilitation of cancer survivors. We must consistently focus on the standardization of methodology of rehabilitation, which will be beneficial for the maximization of quality of life for all cancer patients.