Sarcoma Awareness Week 2013 - Bone Sarcomas

I mentioned the most common type of bone sarcoma yesterday. Osteosarcoma is most commonly found in the arm of leg (specifically the thigh or shin bone) and is usually found in young people or the very elderly.

The next most common form of primary bone cancer is Ewing’s sarcoma, which I have written about previously. This can affect any bone but is most commonly found in the pelvis, thigh and shin bone. Ewing’s sarcoma is commonly found in teenagers and is very rare in those over the age of thirty.

There are other types of bone cancers that affect adults more then children for example histiocytome affects connective tissue and chondrosarcoma originates in the cartilage.

Rarer types of bone cancer are Chordoma which forms in the spine in adults and giant cell tumour (GIST) which can affect any age.

Treating Bone Sarcomas:

The initial aim of treatment would be to remove the tumour completely but the approach would depend on the type of bone cancer, for example osteosarcoma is usually treated with high dose chemo before and possibly after surgery whilst Ewing’s sarcoma responds well to radiotherapy in most cases so that may also be included in the treatment plan. 

Chondrosarcoma does not normally respond well to chemo so surgery is usually the main treatment option for this type of bone cancer.

Amputation is an option but is not considered lightly and is no longer commonly used to treat bone cancer. Limb salvage techniques are used in most cases should it be possible.

New drugs are developed all the time to help patients with certain kinds of bone tumours. Mifamurtide can be given to patients with osteosarcoma after surgical chemotherapy and clinic trials have shown an improvement in long term survival.

England has some specialist treatment centres for bone sarcoma:

*Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

*Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital

*Birmingham Royal Orthopeadic NHS Trust 

*Nuffield Othopaedic Centre NHS Trust

*Royal National Orthopaedic NHS Trust Stanmore

Scotland's managed sarcoma network has three centres for surgery for bone tumours - Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Chemotherapy may be provided in Inverness or Dundee if one of these is closer to the patient's home.

In Wales it is most likely that a patient diagnosed with a primary bone cancer will be referred to Birmingham for surgical treatment, although chemotherapy may be provided closer to home.

For patients in Northern Ireland a referral to Birmingham is also the favoured routine for treatment

Evidence appears to show that these specialist treatment centres deliver the best results for patients and these centres are leaders in the development of new techniques for bone tumours to try and avoid amputation whilst improving survival rates.

I hope you have found this blog post informative, please contact Sarcoma UK if you have any questions or are worried about anything you have read here today

xxx