Dedicated to delivering cutting-edge cancer care to children, Nicklaus Children's Hospital is proud to welcome Thomas J. Utset-Ward, MD, MBA, to our Orthopedic, Sports Medicine and Spine Institute. Dr. Utset-Ward brings a wealth of experience as a pediatric orthopedic surgical oncologist, specializing in sarcomas, limb salvage and reconstruction, pediatric arthroplasty and general pediatric orthopedic surgery. He is a Miami native and fluent in English and Spanish. His addition to our multidisciplinary pediatric oncology team marks a significant enhancement in our commitment to providing exceptional care to children in South Florida.
Pediatric orthopedic oncology is a unique and highly specialized practice that addresses bone cancers such as sarcomas and other bone tumors, including benign tumors, bone cysts and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors, metastatic bone disease, and bone-related complications of cancer. By offering the most advanced treatments and surgical interventions, we continue to prioritize patient outcomes and quality of life, delivering care that addresses both the immediate and long-term challenges faced by our pediatric oncology patients. Nicklaus Children's is one of less than ten children's hospitals in the country with a full-time orthopedic oncologist dedicated to pediatric patients.
Collaborative Care
Our pediatric orthopedic oncology program is integrated within a broader multidisciplinary oncology team, which includes clinicians from the Helen & Jacob Shaham Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute and other specialists. Collaboration between Dr. Utset-Ward and his colleagues ensures patients receive personalized, comprehensive care plans that consider every aspect of their diagnosis and treatment.
Collaboration is essential for sarcoma care and a team of specialized pediatric oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and plastic surgeons at Nicklaus Children's work together with Dr. Utset-Ward to diagnose and comprehensively treat each sarcoma patient. For patients with sarcomas and other rare bone tumors, for example, Dr. Utset-Ward collaborates with our pathologists and radiologists who specialize in musculoskeletal malignancies to ensure an accurate and timely diagnosis. This collaboration is essential to formulating a targeted treatment strategy, as the subtleties in tumor type and grade often dictate the aggressiveness of treatment required.
The team at Nicklaus Children's is one of very few in the region to utilize noninvasive, extendible oncological prostheses for limb salvage. These custom-built implants allow a child's leg to grow along with them using magnets, painlessly and without the need for future leg-lengthening surgeries.
In fact, Dr. Utset-Ward is currently collaborating with Dan Ruggles, DO, pediatric orthopedic surgeon and lengthening and deformity expert at Nicklaus Children's. Together, they plan to bring bone regeneration and bone transport surgery to South Florida so children will no longer have to travel to New York for this care.
From diagnosis to surgical intervention and post-operative care, our approach focuses on maximizing survival, offering the latest in limb salvage surgery, minimizing disease progression and restoring function to the greatest extent possible.
The child-focused team at Nicklaus Children's walks alongside children and families throughout the entire journey of cancer care. From initial consultation to treatment and reconstruction to rehabilitative care and life after cancer, the multidisciplinary sarcoma team ensures each patient benefits from an individualized plan that considers the full scope of their physical and psychological needs.
Innovative Surgical Techniques and Advanced Technology
Our program is at the forefront of orthopedic oncology surgical interventions and innovations. As the director of the Nicklaus Children's 3D Printing and Modeling program, Dr. Utset-Ward uses virtual reality, life-size models and patient-specific surgical guides to provide safer, more precise surgery. Through this program, multiple surgical pediatric specialties at Nicklaus Children's are delivering personalized, innovative surgical solutions.
We perform image-guided and minimally invasive surgeries when appropriate to better target tumors, reduce operative time and limit post-surgical complications. Dr. Utset-Ward is highly skilled in these techniques, particularly in limb-salvage surgery, which has revolutionized the field by reducing the need for amputations in patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas. By resecting the tumor and reconstructing the limb using advanced and sometimes tailor-made implants, bone grafts, or a combination of both, we can preserve limb function and help return to what they love most. In cases where the cancer involves the knee, Dr. Utset-Ward also offers rotationplasty, a complex surgery where the lower leg is re-attached to the thigh, turning the ankle into a new knee. In the rare cases when amputation is the best option for survival and function, Dr. Utset-Ward collaborates with the Nicklaus Children's Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery team to perform targeted muscle re-innervation (TMR), increasing function, reducing pain and even allowing for brain- and nerve-controlled bionic prostheses.
Deeply invested in providing unparalleled and innovative care to our pediatric oncology patients, Dr. Utset-Ward is also involved in multiple clinical and translational research projects. He is currently researching pediatric sarcoma outcomes, gait lab analysis, surgical applications of 3D printing and virtual surgical planning. He works closely with the Nicklaus Children's Hematology and Oncology team to support cutting-edge clinical trials including working with Maggie Fader, MD, and the promising ex vivo drug sensitivity testing and multi-omics profiling based at Nicklaus Children's Hospital.