Computed tomography of osteosarcoma after intraarterial chemotherapy

The response to intraarterial cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II (CDP) chemotherapy was evaluated by computed tomography (CT) in 33 patients with pathologically proved osteosarcoma of the long or flat bones. Twenty-one of the 33 patients had a CT scan before chemotherapy was started. In the other 12 patients, a CT scan was obtained after at least two courses of treatment, and additional studies were performed during the course of therapy. In those patients responding to treatment, the posttherapy scan revealed a remarkable decrease or complete disappearance of the associated soft-tissue mass and clear reestablishment of the fat planes between the muscle bundles that had been obscured. There was sharp definition of the peripheral margins of the calcified healing neoplasm, and the calcification in the healing tumor could be differentiated easily from that of the original bone neoplasm. The findings of CT were compared with those of conventional studies and pathologic results. CT was more accurate than conventional studies in detecting healing process and diagnosis of remission.