Purpose of review: Osteosarcoma (OSA) is the most common primary tumor of bone, mainly affecting children and adolescents. Here we discuss recent advances in surgical and systemic therapies, and highlight potentially new modalities in preclinical evaluation and prognostication.
Recent findings: The advent of neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy has markedly improved the disease-free recurrence and overall survival of OSA. However, treatment efficacy has been stagnant since the 1980s. This plateau has prompted preclinical and clinical research into in precision surgery, inhaled chemotherapy to increase pulmonary drug concentration without systemic side effects, and novel immunomodulators intended to block molecular pathways associated with OSA proliferation and metastasis. With the advent of novel surgical techniques and new forms and vectors for chemotherapy, it is hoped that OSA treatment outcomes will exceed their currently sustained plateau in the near future.
Keywords: Aerosolized chemotherapy; Aldehyde dehydrogenase; Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy; Doxorubicin; GD2 inhibition; Gemcitabine; Indocyanine green; Limb salvage; Metastasis; Methotrexate; Near-infrared imaging; Osteosarcoma; Pazopanib; Pediatric sarcoma; Sorafenib.