In 2005, SARC honored Allan van Oosterom, MD with the Friend of SARC award for his crucial involvement in new advancements of sarcoma treatment, through the development of targeted therapy and implementation of translational research to clinical studies.

Professor van Oosterom studied medicine and internal medicine at the University of Leiden Medical school.  He did his training in medical oncology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.  Also, for many years in London, van Oosterom worked at the Royal Marsden Hospital, for a brief period at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in New York and also at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD.  He was a Professor of Oncology at two universities in Belgium for 10 years.  Additionally, Van Oosterom served as the Head of the Department of Medicine of Medical Oncology at the Leuven Cancer Insitute at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Belgium. 

While working at the University hospital in Leiden, he participated in many studies organized by the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).  The goal of this organization is to improve standards for care of cancer patients in Europe, by investigating all types of cancer through international multidisciplinary studies.  He became very involved in this organization, even partaking in the founding of the Sarcoma Group in 1976.  Eventually, he was elected President of the EORTC, serving a three year term from the years 2000 to 2003.