Osteosarcoma: Bone Cancer in Teenagers & Young Adults

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07/01/23

Osteosarcoma is a type of bone cancer mostly found in teenagers. This aggressive malignant tumor can be found around the knee, causing pain or forming a mass. Gregory Domson, MD, explains this rare condition and the best treatment options available.

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Osteosarcoma is a primary malignancy of bone. It arises mostly in teenagers, typically around the knee, in the lower portion of the thigh bone or the upper portion of the shin bone. It is an aggressive malignant tumor.

It’s pretty rare, maybe 3,000 cases or so a year in the United States. Osteosarcoma typically presents with bone pain or a mass. Occasionally, patients will present with a fracture where they’ve had some soreness, and then they’re involved in sports, and because of the tumor weakening the bone, they have a fracture there.

The treatment for osteosarcoma is also a team approach. These patients are almost always pediatric. So, we get the pediatric hematology-oncology doctors involved. So, they give what we call neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which is chemotherapy before the surgery. That’s designed to kill the tumor and allow us to be more aggressive with our limb salvage surgical options, where we can resect the tumor, spare the limb, and reconstruct the leg or the arm. And then the pediatric hematology doctor is also involved in post-operative care, giving more chemotherapy to treat any systemic disease.