[Recent advances in the treatment of childhood osteosarcoma: therapeutic modalities at the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute].

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common malignant tumor of bone affecting the preteenage and teenage individual. During the past decade, major progress has been made in the treatment of OS. Multi-drug combination chemotherapy has been utilized as adjuvant therapy for destruction of micrometastases which are considered to be present in most patients at diagnosis. This approach has produced three-year survival rates of between 55 and 80%, as opposed to the figure of less than 20% among historical control patients. Recent advances with intraarterial chemotherapy have secured the local control of the tumor and offer hope that increased numbers of patients may become eligible for limb-salvage procedure.