title: The survival of osteosarcoma patients 10 years old or younger is not worse than the survival of older patients: a retrospective analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to assess whether a young age at the time of diagnosis with osteosarcoma has value to predict the prognosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-seven children with stage II osteosarcoma were stratified according to the age of 10. There were 32 preadolescents (<or=10 years) and 35 adolescents (10<age<or=15 years). The patients were analyzed for their clinical characteristics, the histologic response to preoperative chemotherapy, event-free survival (EFS) and the patterns of relapse.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After a median follow-up of 54 months (range: 6 approximately 153 months), the 5-year EFS of the preadolescent and adolescent groups was 64.5+/-9.3% and 58.2+/-9.1%, respectively, and age did not have any statistical significance for survival (p=0.55). Cox regression analysis revealed that both the serum level of alkaline phosphatase and the histologic response to preoperative chemotherapy were significantly related to survival of the 67 patients. Those patients aged less than 7 years responded poorly to preoperative chemotherapy and their rate of amputation was 43%. However, their 5-year EFS was not statistically different from the older patients (57.1+/-18.7 vs 67.7+/-6.3%, respectively, p=0.58).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We could not find any statistical difference in the clinical characteristics and survival from osteosarcoma for the preadolescents and adolescents, so the current approach of having the same protocol for both groups of patients seems to be reasonable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Ah
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dong Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jung Sub
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Kyung Duk
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Won Seok
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Soo-Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dae-Geun
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Jeon