Chemotherapy is a treatment with drugs that enter the bloodstream and spread to reach and destroy cancer cells throughout the body. Chemotherapy is often part of the treatment for Ewing’s sarcoma and osteosarcoma but is rarely used to treat other bone cancers.
Chemotherapy may be useful for treating bone cancer that has spread through the bloodstream to the lungs or other organs.
Chemotherapy is usually used before surgery in combination with radiotherapy to shrink cancer. This allows the surgeon to use limb-sparing surgery. Chemotherapy can also be used to control the symptoms of bone cancer in cases where treatment is not possible, and this is known as palliative chemotherapy.
Among the most important drugs that may be used to treat bone cancer, as part of the chemotherapy plan, are the following:
- Doxorubicin.
- Cisplatin.
- Cyclophosphamide.
- Etoposide.
- Ifosfamide.
A cancer patient needs palliative care in addition to cancer treatment. This care includes trying to overcome the physical symptoms of bone cancer, the side effects of treatment, in addition to the psychological and social stresses caused by cancer and its treatment.