Relapsed Osteosarcoma Trial Concepts to Match the Complexity of the Disease

Osteosarcoma relapses not only herald a very poor prognosis but also opportunities to treat this genetically diverse complex cancer in new ways. This review will attempt to show that the field is a rapidly evolving one in which not only cytotoxic agents but also local control strategies and the immune system can be harnessed to improve the prognosis of relapsed patients. The molecular heterogeneity and the difficulty of effectively treating most common patterns of relapse with surgery and/or radiation (lung and/or bone metastases) have been responsible for a wide variety of approaches to learning whether agents are active against osteosarcoma. This chapter will highlight past, current, and potential future approaches to provide more effective systemic therapy for the problem of recurrent metastases of osteosarcoma. These include single-agent trials with a wide variety of agents, radiopharmaceuticals, and immune therapies. Finally, how such efforts are integrated into more effective local control strategies is also discussed.