Recent progress in chemotherapy and immunotherapy of sarcomas of bony origin, both as primary and adjunctive therapy

Treatment for primary malignant tumors of bone, in the past several decades, has yielded uniformly poor results. Recent progress in chemotherapy and immunotherapy are detailed. An important advance in treating osteogenic sarcoma has been the application of adjuvant chemotherapy after initial amputation. CONPADRI-I and COMPADRI-II chemotherapy (a multiple drug approach) is discussed. Adriamycin in combination or alone has proved effective in treating osteogenic sarcoma. Ewing's tumor is showing increased survival rates from radiation therapy alone, as well as by use of systemic adjuvant chemotherapy combined with local radiation. Adjuvant triple chemotherapy with radiotherapy has resulted in pronounced improvement in survival. Chondrosarcomas are largely chemotherapy-resistant. Immunotherapy in bone tumors still is in the experimental stage and investigations with immunotherapy are preliminary. It appears, however, that the immunological status of a patient definitely relates to prognosis. Through increased sophistication in specific chemotherapy and magnitude of treatment, further advances in treatment of primary malignant bone tumors may be expected.