Osteosarcoma of the facial bones.

Maxillo-facial osteosarcoma is a rare primary tumor in adults. Between 1980 and 1990, 11 patients were considered; 6 had primary tumors in mandible and 5 in the maxillo-paranasal region. All cases were treated with surgery as the primary modality. Resection was radical in 8 patients and palliative in the other 3. Adjuvant postoperative chemotherapy with adriamycin was administered for 6 months in the 8 patients treated with complete resection. After a median follow-up of 3 years, 7 patients are still alive and 4 died of progressive disease. In the group of patients treated with radical surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy only one died for distant metastases, and 7 are living free of disease. With complete surgical resection long term local tumor control was achieved in all patients. No patient treated with incomplete resection achieved local tumor control with subsequent radiotherapy. The possibility of performing a complete surgical resection of the primary appears to be an essential step to obtain long term local control and survival in maxillo-facial osteosarcoma. Our series is, however, too limited to evaluate the therapeutic benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy.