Skip to main content
Canadian Journal of Surgery logoLink to Canadian Journal of Surgery
. 1999 Jun;42(3):190–199.

Doxorubicin-cisplatin chemotherapy for high-grade nonosteogenic sarcoma of bone. Comparison of treatment and control groups

Andrea E Waddell 1, Aileen M Davis 1, Henry Ahn 1, Jay S Wunder 1, Martin E Blackstein 1, Robert S Bell 1,
PMCID: PMC3788948  PMID: 10372015

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the role of chemotherapy with a combination of doxorubicin (adriamycin) and cisplatin in high-grade, nonosteogenic, non-Ewing’s sarcoma (non-OSA) of bone.

Design

A case series comparison with a literature-derived control group.

Setting

A university-affiliated tertiary care centre.

Patients

Thirty patients with a diagnosis of non-OSA. Of these, 8 had low-grade disease (grade 1 or 2) and 22 had high-grade disease (grade 3). Eleven of the 22 with high-grade disease had malignant fibrous histiocytoma. Seventeen patients with nonmetastatic high-grade non-OSA were compared with a literature cohort of 37 patients who met the eligibility criteria of nonmetastatic, high-grade non-OSA treated with surgery, with or without radiotherapy. The mean follow-up was 25.2 months.

Interventions

Eight patients with low-grade tumour underwent surgery alone; 22 patients with high-grade tumour underwent surgery and 6 courses of adriamycin (75 mg/m2 every 3 weeks) and cisplatin (100 mg/m2 every 3 weeks).

Main outcome measures

Disease-free survival and overall survival in those with high-grade tumours treated with or without chemotherapy.

Results

Of 8 patients who had low-grade tumours and underwent surgery alone, 3 had systemic relapse. Of the 22 having high-grade tumours, 4 did not receive chemotherapy because of age and comorbid conditions. Of the other 18, 13 received 3 courses of chemotherapy preoperatively and 3 courses postoperatively, 4 received all 6 courses postoperatively and 1 received all chemotherapy preoperatively to treat metastatic disease. In the 17-patient cohort used for comparison with the literature control group, disease-free survival was 57% at a mean follow-up of 25.6 months and overall survival was 57% at a mean follow-up of 30.1 months. In the control group, disease-free survival was 16% at a mean follow-up of 20.9 months and overall survival was 26% at a mean follow-up of 29.9 months. These differences are significant: p = 0.0000, χ2 = 41.61 for disease-free survival and p = 0.0000, χ2 = 46.49 for overall survival.

Conclusions

The findings of this study support the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with high-grade non-OSA, in whom malignant fibrous histiocytoma was the predominant histologic subtype.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (241.0 KB).


Articles from Canadian Journal of Surgery are provided here courtesy of Canadian Medical Association

RESOURCES