Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
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From 1982 to 1989, 97 patients with extremity-localized, high-grade osteosarcoma were treated according to the T-10 protocol. Two thirds of the patients consisted of the near-complete national patient materials from Norway and Finland. Eighty patients (82%) received four courses of high-dose methotrexate (HD MTX, 8 to 12 g/m2) at weekly intervals as their only preoperative treatment, and 77 patients (79%) were assessable for histologic response grading according to Rosen et al (Cancer 49:1221-1230, 1991). ⋯ These results were obtained in a largely nonselected group of patients. We conclude that a good initial chemotherapy effect is important for the final outcome in osteosarcoma, and that HD MTX alone is insufficient preoperative treatment for the majority of patients. The individual MTX excretion rate is of importance for tumor response, suggesting a dose-response relationship for HD MTX treatment.