What are the treatment options for bone cancer?
A. Treatment options depend on the type, size, location and stage of the cancer, as well as the person’s age and general health. The three main types of treatment for bone cancer are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Surgery is often the primary treatment. Although amputation of a limb is sometimes necessary, pre- or post-operative chemotherapy has made limb-sparing surgery possible in most cases. When appropriate, surgeons avoid amputation by removing only the cancerous section of the bone and replacing it with an artificial device called an endoprosthesis. Chemotherapy and radiation may also be used alone or in combination. Because Ewing’s sarcoma tends to metastasize rapidly, multidrug chemotherapy is often used in addition to radiation therapy or surgery on the primary tumor.
