Background: A poor outcome is traditionally ascribed to osteosarcoma metastatic to the lungs, but data have been unavailable regarding the outcome of such patients after systematic treatment on clinical trials.
Methods: The clinical course and outcome of 31 patients who had osteosarcoma metastatic to the lungs diagnosed between 1962 and 1990 at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital were reviewed to determine whether the use of increasingly aggressive multimodality therapy has improved their outcome. The patients were grouped by treatment eras, based on major changes in therapy (i.e., single-agent or two-agent era, 1962-1972; standard multiagent era, 1972-1982; and intensive multiagent era, 1982-1990).
Results: With increasingly intensive chemotherapy, more aggressive efforts to resect metastatic disease, and earlier detection of pulmonary metastases by computed tomography, the survival of these patients has improved significantly over the 28-year study period. Those treated since 1982 have a 50% estimated probability of survival at 3 years, whereas there were no survivors at 3 years in the two earlier eras. Survival for the former group reached a plateau of 30% at 4 years.
Conclusions: The use of aggressive multimodality therapy, coupled with modern pediatric imaging techniques to detect pulmonary disease, has improved the traditionally dismal outlook in pediatric patients with osteosarcoma and synchronous pulmonary metastases.