ABSTRACT
From Mar. 1985 to Dec. 1992, 170 cases of osteosarcoma, which were proved histologically were admitted in our department at least one time. Among them we analysed 89 cases of Ennekings stage IIB who took limb-salvage(54) or amputation(35) and followed our protocol, with non-randomized retrospective study. The average age of the 89 patiens was 17.0 years(7 to 57). Fifty-four cases of salvage group took neoadjuvant chemotherapy, 35 cases of amputation group took neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. The result revealed prevalences of 2/54, 0/35 as to local recurrence; 15 of 54, 17 of 35 as to metastasis; 14 of 54, 15 of 35 as to death. Of the 2 patients who had a local recurrence, one died of metastasis and the other was lost follow up. According to Kaplan-Meier's plot 5-year continuously disease free survival rate for whole 89 cases of stage IIB was 43.1%, for salvage group 56.4%, for amputation group 34.0%. There were no signifcant difference in survival rate between salvage and amputation groups(p>0.05, by log-rank test). This result means the limb-salvage operation for Enneking's stage IIB osteosarcoma does not hinder patients survival.