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• Bone and Soft Tissue Oncology

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Bone and Soft Tissue Oncology

Patient and Family Education

Osteosarcoma

Symptoms and Diagnosis

If a patient has symptoms of osteosarcoma (such as pain and swelling of a bone or a bone region), a doctor may order X-rays and blood tests. If the doctor suspects the problem is osteosarcoma, he or she may recommend seeing a specialist called an orthopaedic oncologist.

The orthopaedic oncologist may cut out a piece of tissue from the affected area (biopsy). This procedure may be done in the hospital. The tissue will be examined at under a microscope to see if it contains any cancer cells.

The chance of recovery (prognosis) and choice of treatment for osteosarcoma depend on a variety of factors. These include:

• size
• location
• type
• stage of the cancer (how far the cancer has spread)
• how long the patient has had symptoms
• how much of the cancer is removed by surgery and/or killed by chemotherapy
• the patient’s age
• blood other test results
• general health

This page was last updated on: September 21, 2009.

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