Stage Explanation
Stages of osteosarcoma
Localized osteosarcoma
Metastatic osteosarcoma
Recurrent
Stages of osteosarcoma
Once osteosarcoma has been found, more tests may be done to find out if cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body. This is called staging. At
present, there is no staging system for osteosarcoma. Instead, most patients
are grouped depending on whether cancer is found in only one part of the body
(localized disease) or whether the cancer has spread from one part of the body
to another (metastatic disease). Your doctor needs to know where the cancer is
located and how far the disease has spread to plan treatment. The following
groups are used for osteosarcoma:
Localized osteosarcoma
The cancer cells have not spread beyond the bone or nearby tissue in which the
cancer began.
Metastatic osteosarcoma
The cancer cells have spread from the bone in which the cancer began to other
parts of the body. The cancer most often spreads to the lungs. It may also
spread to other bones.
About one in five patients with osteosarcoma has cancer that has metastasized by the time it is diagnosed.
In multifocal osteosarcoma, tumors appear in 2 or more bones, but have not spread to the lungs.
Recurrent
Recurrent disease means that the cancer has come back (recurred) after it has
been treated. It may come back in the tissues where it first started or it may
come back in another part of the body. Osteosarcoma most often recurs in the lung. When osteosarcoma recurs, it is usually within 2 to 3 years after treatment is completed. Later recurrence is possible, but rare.
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