Misconceptions to avoid in preventing osteosarcoma

Everyone knows that the body is the capital of revolution. However, no one wants to suffer from diseases caused by various force majeure factors. So what should we do? A little bit of physical discomfort can be the trigger of invisible diseases. We must pay attention to it. Today we are going to talk about the misunderstandings that should be avoided in preventing osteosarcoma.

First, let's understand the concept of osteosarcoma. It is also called osteogenic sarcoma. It is one of the most common malignant bone tumors. The age of onset is mostly between 15 and 25 years old. It is more common in men than in women. The most common site is the epiphyseal end of long tubular bones, with the distal femur and proximal tibia being the most common, followed by the humerus and proximal fibula. It can also occur in other parts such as the upper end of the femur, spine, ilium and other bone tissues.

There are still many misunderstandings about the prevention of osteosarcoma.

Myth 1: Osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor and cannot be cured

At present, many patients' families and even primary care doctors still believe that osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor and cannot be cured. Indeed, the treatment of malignant bone tumors has always been a difficult problem in orthopedic treatment. However, in the past 30 years, due to the application of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the survival rate of patients with malignant bone tumors has been significantly improved.

Myth 2: Amputation is necessary when osteosarcoma is discovered

Because osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor, the standard treatment for osteosarcoma in history was amputation, but at that time the highest 5-year survival rate of osteosarcoma was only 20%. Studies have found that 90% of osteosarcoma patients already have micrometastases in their bodies when they seek medical treatment. Therefore, even if a high amputation is performed at the first time of consultation, the recurrence and distant metastasis of the tumor in the amputation stump cannot be controlled; that is to say, simple amputation is not beneficial to improving the survival rate of osteosarcoma patients. On the contrary, multicenter studies have confirmed that limb-sparing treatment does not affect the overall survival rate of patients, and there is no significant difference in survival rate and local tumor recurrence rate between patients undergoing limb-sparing treatment and those undergoing radical amputation. Now in most tumor treatment centers, more than 80% of patients receive limb-sparing treatment.

Myth 3: The sooner the surgery for osteosarcoma is performed, the better

Many patients’ families believe that the earlier the osteosarcoma surgery is performed, the better. Even some non-cancer treatment centers in China have hastily performed amputation or limb-saving surgery on patients with malignant bone tumors after receiving them. After surgery, the patients are transferred to the cancer treatment center for chemotherapy. This is completely wrong. Even if these patients receive regular chemotherapy after surgery, the result is tumor recurrence and metastasis without exception, causing irreparable disasters to the patients and their families. Although another part of osteosarcoma has begun to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy before osteosarcoma surgery in the cancer treatment center, due to various reasons, the preoperative treatment course is too short, which ultimately affects the efficacy of osteosarcoma patients.

Myth 4: Even if osteosarcoma doesn’t kill you, chemotherapy can.

Many people are afraid of chemotherapy due to unfamiliarity with malignant tumors and chemotherapy. However, with the progress of clinical research on chemotherapy in the medical community over the past 30 years, it has been found that the toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs on most organs are mild and reversible; and with the progress of supportive treatment, such as the use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and central antiemetic drugs, high-intensity chemotherapy is completely possible. However, the possibility of irreversible damage to an organ by chemotherapy is entirely possible, and there are still reports of chemotherapy-induced deaths at home and abroad.

I hope this article will be adopted by you!