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What Is Osteosarcoma? TOPICS

What is osteosarcoma?


Osteosarcoma (also called osteogenic sarcoma) is a type of cancer that starts in the bones. To understand osteosarcoma, it helps to know about bones and what they do.

About normal bones

Many people think of bones as just being part of the skeleton, like the steel girders that support a building. But bones actually do a number of different things.

  • Some bones help support and protect our vital organs. Examples include the skull bones, breast bone (sternum), and ribs. These types of bones are often referred to as flat bones.
  • Other bones, such as those in the arms and legs, make a framework for our muscles that helps us move. These are called long bones.
  • Bones also make new blood cells. This is done in the soft, inner part of some bones called the bone marrow, which contains blood-forming cells. New red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are made in bone marrow.
  • Bones also provide the body with a place to store minerals such as calcium.

Because bones are very hard and don’t change shape − at least once we reach adulthood − we might not think of bones as being alive, but they are. Like all other tissues of the body, bones have many kinds of living cells. Two main types of cells in our bones help them stay strong and keep their shape.

  • Osteoblasts help build up bones by forming the bone matrix (the connective tissue and minerals that give bone its strength).
  • Osteoclasts break down bone matrix to prevent too much of it from building up, and they help bones keep their proper shape.

By depositing or removing minerals from the bones, osteoblasts and osteoclasts also help control the amount of these minerals in the blood.





Subtypes of osteosarcoma

Several subtypes of osteosarcoma can be identified by how they look on x-rays and under the microscope. Some of these subtypes have a better prognosis (outlook) than others.

Based on how they look under the microscope, osteosarcomas can be classified as high grade, intermediate grade, or low grade. The grade of the tumor tells doctors how likely it is that the cancer will grow and spread to other parts of the body.

High-grade osteosarcomas: These are the fastest growing types of osteosarcoma. When seen under a microscope, they do not look like normal bone and have many cells in the process of dividing into new cells. Most osteosarcomas that occur in children and teens are high grade. There are many types of high-grade osteosarcomas (although the first 3 are the most common).

  • Osteoblastic
  • Chondroblastic
  • Fibroblastic
  • Mixed
  • Small cell
  • Telangiectatic
  • High-grade surface (juxtacortical high grade)

Other high-grade osteosarcomas include:

  • Pagetoid: a tumor that develops in someone with Paget disease of the bone
  • Extra-skeletal: a tumor that starts in a part of the body other than a bone
  • Post-radiation: a tumor that starts in a bone that had once received radiation therapy

Intermediate-grade osteosarcomas: These uncommon tumors fall in between high-grade and low-grade osteosarcomas. (They are usually treated as if they are low-grade osteosarcomas.)

  • Periosteal (juxtacortical intermediate grade)

Low-grade osteosarcomas: These are the slowest growing osteosarcomas. The tumors look more like normal bone and have few dividing cells when seen under a microscope.

  • Parosteal (juxtacortical low grade)
  • Intramedullary or intraosseous well differentiated (low-grade central)

The grade of the tumor plays a role in determining its stage and the type of treatment used. For more on staging, see the section “How is osteosarcoma staged?

Other types of bone tumors

Several other types of tumors can start in the bones.

Malignant (cancerous) bone tumors

Ewing tumors are the second most common bone cancer in children. They are described in our document Ewing Family of Tumors.

Most other types of bone cancers are usually found in adults and are rare in children. These include:

  • Chondrosarcoma (cancer that develops from cartilage)
  • Malignant fibrous histiocytoma
  • Fibrosarcoma
  • Chordoma
  • Malignant giant cell tumor of bone

For more information on these cancers, see our document Bone Cancer.

Many types of cancer that start in other organs of the body can spread to the bones. These are sometimes referred to as metastatic bone cancers, but they are not true bone cancers. For example, prostate cancer that spreads to the bones is still prostate cancer and is treated like prostate cancer. For more information, see the document Bone Metastasis.

Benign (non-cancerous) bone tumors

Not all bone tumors are cancer. Benign bone tumors do not spread to other parts of the body. They are usually not life threatening and can often be cured by surgery. There are many types of benign bone tumors.

  • Osteomas are benign tumors formed by bone cells.
  • Chondromas are benign tumors formed by cartilage cells.
  • Osteochondromas are benign tumors with both bone and cartilage cells.

Other benign bone tumors include eosinophilic granuloma of bone, non-ossifying fibroma, enchondroma, xanthoma, benign giant cell tumor of bone, and lymphangioma.

The rest of this document covers only osteosarcoma.

Last Medical Review: 04/18/2014
Last Revised: 01/27/2016