Osteosarcoma

The successful treatment of patients with osteosarcoma requires close cooperation within an experienced multidisciplinary team including pediatric or medical oncologists, surgeons, pathologists and radiologists. Therefore, therapy should be performed in specialized centers able to provide access to the full spectrum of care. As in other rare malignancies, treatment should be administered within prospective multicenter trials. Therapy must include complete surgical removal of all detectable tumor sites as well as multiagent chemotherapy. The chemotherapy regimen should include several or all of the following four drugs: doxorubicin, high-dose methotrexate with leukovorin-rescue, cisplatin and ifosfamide. Preoperative (neoadjuvant) plus postoperative (adjuvant) polychemotherapy should be preferred, because it allows preparation for safe surgery and preparation of the appropriate prosthesis for the individual patient. The choice of the postponed definitive surgical procedure should be influenced by the anatomical site of the primary tumor, its relationship to neighboring structures, such as vessels and nerves, age and growth potential of the patient, and probably also by the response of the tumor to preoperative chemotherapy. A major, as yet unsolved, problem is the dismal prognosis for patients with unresectable or relapsed osteosarcomas. Novel approaches are needed in order to improve their prognosis.