Andreas Leithner

Andreas Leithner, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology and Head of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Center at Medical University of Graz (Austria), one of Europe's leading sarcoma surgery programs. He is internationally recognized for advances in limb-sparing surgery for bone and soft tissue sarcomas, including pioneering contributions to 3D-printed custom implants for pelvic and long-bone reconstruction after wide resection, and for large-scale outcomes research in orthopaedic oncology. Dr. Leithner's program has contributed seminal series on limb-sparing surgery for pelvic osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma — one of the most technically demanding scenarios in surgical oncology — demonstrating that pelvic resection with reconstruction using custom 3D-printed titanium implants can achieve adequate surgical margins while preserving limb function, and with local control rates comparable to hemipelvectomy. His work on surgical margin adequacy (wide vs marginal vs intralesional resection) and its impact on local recurrence and survival in extremity soft tissue sarcoma has contributed to evidence-based margin definitions in European sarcoma guidelines. Beyond bone tumors, Dr. Leithner has produced large institutional series on outcomes after wide local excision for high-grade soft tissue sarcomas, including the impact of unplanned excision ("whoops" surgery) on re-resection strategy and outcomes. He has served on the faculty of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma guidelines committees, ensuring surgical perspectives are integrated into multidisciplinary management recommendations.