Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients with osteosarcoma: University of Florida studies

Abstract

We have carried out one trial of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (ACT) and two trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) followed by definitive surgery and ACT in consecutive patients seen at the University of Florida over a 10-year period [1–4]. The aims of the adjuvant trial were to assess a new chemoradiotherapy regimen, to correlate the outcome with clinicopathological staging, and to compare the results in patients having immediate amputation with those having limb-preserving surgery. The aims of the NCT trials were to assess the initial efficacy of new drug combinations, to see if this predicted freedom from relapse, to increase the proportion of patients whose limbs were preserved, and to assess if the extent of adjacent spread of the primary lesion (E1-E6) [2] retained significance in a neoadjuvant setting.