Bone Cancer Treatment
The musculoskeletal oncology program at UPMC Orthopaedic Care uses the latest methods to diagnose and treat cancerous and noncancerous bone and soft tissue tumors.
What are the treatment options for bone cancer?
Treatment for bone cancer doesn't always mean surgery.
Once your doctor makes a diagnosis of bone cancer, we will run staging tests to find out if the bone cancer has spread and how much.
We then develop a custom treatment plan, based on your overall health and bone cancer:
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy shrinks tumors and kills cancer cells. Radiation may be:
- External (aimed at a tumor from outside the body).
- Internal (radioactive materials inside the body, near the cancer cells).
Radiation therapy is effective against some bone cancers, like Ewing sarcoma. But it tends to be less effective overall for many types of bone tumors.
Radiation usually takes place over several treatments. It may also happen before and/or after surgery.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. The drugs — either pills or injections — enter the bloodstream and travel through the body, killing mostly cancer cells, but some healthy cells too.
Chemo can kill cancer cells anywhere in the body, so doctors use it when cancer has spread.
Chemotherapy drugs work against some bone cancers, like Ewing sarcoma. But doctors don't use it for other types of bone cancer. They may try other medicines first.
Chemotherapy can have short-term side effects, like nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, hair loss, and mouth sores.
Bone cancer surgery
Bone cancer surgery removes:
- The cancerous soft tissue or bone tumor.
- Nearby tissues.
- Nearby lymph nodes, in some cases.
The goal is to remove every bit of the cancer. This is why surgeons take out the tumor and some of the normal tissue around the tumor.
Whenever they can, our orthopaedic surgeons will remove the cancerous part of the bone without having to amputate. This is called limb-salvage surgery. They will then use state-of-the-art techniques to replace the cancerous tissue they removed.
Adding radiation therapy or chemotherapy can help avoid the need to amputate and prevent the cancer from returning or spreading. But for some people, the best choice is to amputate. Reconstructive surgery can help, and we have many options.
Rehabilitation after amputation can take three to six months, such as to learn to walk with a prosthetic. It can take longer after limb-salvage surgery — as long as a year.
Doctors also remove bone cancer tumors from the skull, spine, pelvis, and jaw. Bone cancer in these areas of the body often requires both surgery and radiation.