Bridge Articles

A Brief Introduction to our Series of "Bridge Articles"

As mentioned in the Building Bridges editorial of the April 2004 issue of ESUN, sarcomas are a group of rare cancers that include bone sarcomas (such as osteosarcomas, chondrosarcomas and Ewing’s sarcoma of bone) and soft tissue sarcomas (such as malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH), liposarcoma, leiomyosarcoma (LMS), synovial sarcoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST), rhabdomyosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, (extraosseous or extraskeletal), Ewing’s sarcoma (EWS) and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET), angiosarcoma, (a.k.a., hemangiosarcoma), epithelioid sarcoma, alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) and malignant hemangiopericytoma (HPC). Some of these sarcomas can develop both in bone as well as in soft tissue, e.g., Ewing’s sarcoma and fibrosarcoma.

This is the first in a series of articles that I hope will help build bridges among these and other sarcoma communities. By community, I mean the patients, caregivers, and medical teams that are dealing with a specific sarcoma. I believe that each community can benefit from the experiences and knowledge of the other groups. A "bridge article" overviews a specific type of sarcoma and is meant for both the "layperson" and the “medical professional". These articles are attempting to cover a gap that can be difficult to span. I was editor-in-chief of two technical periodicals in my field for eight years. The readerships of both periodicals consisted of practitioners and researchers. Both periodicals contained articles specifically targeted at practitioners and articles specifically targeted at researchers. However, I wanted to publish some articles that would appeal to and be useful to both groups. I commissioned a number of “tutorial” articles and a number of “survey” articles to do this. I called these articles "bridge articles". I worked very closely with the authors of them to attempt to close the gap between the two audiences.

The paradigm that eventually emerged was to have the body of the article focused on the practitioner, augmented with a number of sidebars going into greater depth for the researcher. Thus there were various paths that one could follow in reading the article. This approach worked well and I began using it with authors of selected non-tutorial and non-survey articles. In this spirit, Dr. R. Lor Randall, Director of the Sarcoma Services at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, has written our first Bridge Article for ESUN. It is an overview of the Ewing's Sarcoma Family of Tumors.

Sidebars that appear in boxes with red boarders are directed towards doctors and other members of the medical team. However, patients and caregivers may find some of them informative.

Sidebars that appear in boxes with blue boarders are directed towards patients and caregivers. However, doctors and members of the medical team may enjoy some of them as well.

Also, remember that each of the words or phrases that are underlined in articles in ESUN (as is done with the sarcomas listed above) are hyperlinks to websites, documents or articles.

Click here to proceed to Dr. Randall's article.

Please send me your comments about this effort by clicking here.

Bruce Shriver