[Management of pulmonary metastases from osteosarcomas]

The management of pulmonary metastases from osteosarcomas rests at present on thoracic surgery combined with chemotherapy. Until the beginning of the seventies chemotherapy proved very disappointing. With adriamycin, methotrexate in high doses followed by folinic acid and, more recently, platinum cis-dichlorodiamine, remissions, which are usually partial, are obtained in a significant proportion of patients (at least 30%). The addition of less active agents such as vincristine, cyclophosphamide, actinomycin D and bleomycin is helpful. Among 31 patients with pulmonary metastases from treated osteosarcomas seen at the Gustave Roussy Institute, 18 underwent thoracic surgery as the first treatment; in 10, surgery was followed by chemotherapy with adriamycin, vincristine, methotrexate in high doses + folinic acid + cyclophosphamide. Five patients are in complete remission 27, 30, 49, 50 and 77 months after the surgical procedure. 12 patients were initially treated with a similar chemotherapeutic regimen; a subsequent thoracic surgical procedure was undertaken in two patients who died 18 and 30 months after the pulmonary metastases had appeared. In one patient, the metastases were treated by irradiation. These results are compared to previous reports in the medical literature.