Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of adolescent patients with osteosarcoma

Abstract

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant neoplasia that affects the bone tissue with no known cause. It most commonly affects the appendicular skeleton, mainly the femur and tibia bones, in children and adolescents. The surgery treatment consists of a resection of the tumor or amputation of the affected limb, associated with chemotherapy. The earlier it is diagnosed and treated, and the smaller it is, the better the prognosis will be. Objective: The main objective of this study was to present the clinical characteristics and epidemiology of adolescent patients from the Ceará Cancer Hospital (HCC) in the city of Fortaleza. Clinical and epidemiologic data about these patients, who ranged from the age of 10 to 19 years old, was investigated in order to fulfill our objectives with this study. Method: A retrospective cohort study was developed gathering information from patients’ charts from the above-mentioned hospital from the period of January 2006 to December 2007. The data was collected through a semi-structured form that consisted of questions that appraised both the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the patients, as well as the demographic data. After selecting 29 cases, only 26 were used for the analysis due to either incomplete information, abandonment of treatment, or hospital transference. Results: Our results show that Osteosarcoma was found to be more frequent in male patients (57.7%), in patients between 10 and 15 years old (73.1%), in afro-descendant patients (50%), and in patients that came from more rural areas (73.1%). This study also shows that 30.8% of the patients presented a family history of cancer. The symptom that these patients seemed to have in common was pain (24 patients), followed by an increase of local volume (20 patients), and previous trauma (8 patients). The femur bone was affected in 65.4% of the cases, with occurrence of metastasis (76.9%), almost always during the diagnosis and with the majority (15 patients) to the lungs. The treatment consisted of chemotherapy (96.2%) associated with the surgical resection (69.2%) and amputation (73.1%) or limb replacement. Other treatments such as Physical Therapy were prescribed in 42.3% of the cases, mostly during post-surgery (23.1%), and generally just to treat the complications. Conclusion: This study suggests that the common profile of a patient with Osteosarcoma is male, afro-descendant, coming from the more rural areas and presenting a family history of cancer. In conclusion, this study suggests the importance of knowledge about both clinical and epidemiological characteristics of Osteosarcoma patients, so that there is more regard from health professionals concerning multidisciplinary teamwork at the time of the diagnosis.