Metastatic osteosarcoma to lung: a clinicopathologic study of surgical biopsies and resections.

Metastatic tumor to the lungs is one of the most important factors in the poor prognosis of primary osteosarcoma of bone. Until recently, pulmonary resection alone was the only therapeutic method available to salvage these patients. Previous investigators have reviewed a number of clinical and pathologic parameters which may possibly relate to the prognosis of osteosarcoma and the occurrence of pulmonary metastases. The pathologic features of these latter lesions have received little attention other than to state that they generally are less differentiated than the primary tumor. A review of multiple pulmonary nodules resected from 15 patients has demonstrated that 66% of all lesions were essentially identical to the primary tumor. The 5-year survival from the original amputation was 33% in this series; however, it was not possible to prognosticate a favorable outcome from the metastasis, a similar type of observation which has been made by others in relation to the primary osteosarcoma.