What is the treatment for osteosarcoma ?
Modern treatments are based on chemotherapy combined with local therapy (usually surgery or sometimes radiotherapy to the main tumour): • chemotherapy (using drugs to kill cancer cells) • surgery (to take out the tumour in an operation) • radiotherapy (using high-dose x-rays to kill cancer cells) Most osteosarcomas are treated with surgery to remove the tumour and a margin of the healthy tissue around the cancer. The type of surgery will depend on the site and location of the main tumour and other individual factors. Sometimes all or part of an arm or leg may have to be removed (amputated) to make sure that all of the cancer is removed. In other cases limb-sparing surgery may be possible, where the tumour is removed without an amputation. In limb-sparing operations the bone is taken out and replaced by an artificial device (endoprosthesis) or bones from other places in the body (bone graft). Chemotherapy is also given to kill malignant cells that may be circulating around the body. The
