Primary osteosarcoma of the spine: a review of 10 cases

The authors describe 10 cases of osteosarcoma of the spine treated between January 1951 and December 2010, and obtained from the Tumour Registry of their hospital. The mean age at presentation was 38.8 years (range: 16-73 years); the mean duration of symptoms was 5.1 months (range: 3 weeks-1 year). Pain was the commonest complaint (9 patients), followed by neurological compromise (6 patients). The thoracic spine and male gender were predominant. Seven patients underwent marginal resection, 3 underwent intralesional resection. All, except one, had adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy, pre- and/or postoperatively. This rare sarcoma has a dismal prognosis : the median survival period was only 23 years. The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 80%, 40% and 20%. Astonishingly, marginal resection (7 cases) did not lead to a longer survival than intralesional resection (3 cases): respectively 30 months and 42 months. Quite logically, local recurrence in 6 patients was linked to a survival of only 36 months, while the other 4 patients survived 52 months. Age below 40 was a positive factor, but not significantly. All patients had a reasonable quality of life with outcomes consistent with the available literature. Recent literature stresses that there is a trend toward improved survival with en bloc resection.