As mentioned earlier, in osteosarcoma, there is generally a considerable chance of being cured if the patient has no local recurrence or metastasis that occurs five years after diagnosed, supposing that he/she can complete the chemotherapy and be regularly followed up by a physician. Then, after surgery, how does a follow-up being conducted? Before I dive deeper, we would like to give special thanks to Taiwan National Health Insurance Bureau for allowing osteosarcoma patients to complete these tests without a strong financial burden. This can't even be achieved in advanced countries like the US!
In our view at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital, after the surgery:
Osteosarcoma- Follow-up
Between zero and two years
every three months
MRI + Chest CT
Between two and five years
every six months
MRI + Chest CT
After five years
every year
MRI + Chest CT
Considering the high radiation dose in chest CT, under the physician's judgment, lung X-ray imaging can replace chest CT intermittently. If the tumor location is close to the surface, and the hospital has radiologists who are good at sonography, sonography can also be used for tracking the lesion.
Traditionally, many physicians worry that after surgery, the patient will embed artificial joints, steel plates and other metals, resulting in unclear signals from artifact during the MRI tracking. However, it no longer be an issue since many new instruments and software, thanks to the radiation department in Taipei Veterans General Hospital, are procured, including MAVRIC GE (1.5T) and SEMAC, Siemens, which can remove almost completely the artifact. Those instruments require no additional charge and can significantly improve the safety and accuracy of regular follow-up!
On our web page, we have an online ‘appointment check schedule' for osteopathic patients, which can greatly reduce the number of commutes patients will have to make to the hospital. We invite patients who need regular check-ups to use more!
預約檢查時間表