OSTEOGENIC SARCOMA IN CHILDREN

One hundred and thirty children less than 16 years of age with pathologically verified osteogenic (skeletogenic) sarcoma were seen during a 30-year period (1925-1955) with a minimum follow-up of ten years. This age group represents 23.6 per cent of the authors' total experience with skeletogenic sarcoma. The absolute survival for the entire series was 18.5 per cent at five years and 16.2 per cent at ten years. No child with an osseous tumor elsewhere than in an extremity had longterm survival. Amputation was the only "curative" method of therapy; 23 per cent of patients so treated were alive at five years and 20 per cent were alive at ten years. Radiation was never "curative" when used as the sole method of therapy, and treatment failure was higher in the group of patients who were treated with preoperative irradiation and then amputation than in the group treated by amputation alone. Prognosis varied with the size of the tumor-the smaller the better. The most important factor in prognosis was the histologic subgrouping of osteogenic sarcoma. No evidence was found to support a belief that there are considerable differences between skeletogenic sarcomas in children and in adults.