Use of chemotherapy for patients with bone and soft-tissue sarcomas.

For patients with bone sarcomas, chemotherapy has a proven role in the primary therapy of osteogenic sarcoma and Ewing sarcoma but no role for chondrosarcoma. Chemotherapy's role is currently more limited for patients with soft-tissue sarcomas, as it is generally used to palliate metastatic disease in most subtypes of soft-tissue sarcoma and remains largely investigational in the treatment of operable disease. The chemotherapy regimens for musculoskeletal sarcomas often carry significant potential toxicities, so the efficacy of less intensive and less toxic regimens is a focus of ongoing research.