After both surgeries on his shoulderblade, him and his wife were never told to see an oncoligist (sp?). They were told that the type of cancer he has is not treatable with chemo or radiation, only by removing the affect areas.

The lung specialist, however, was surprised that the other doctor didn't have them see an oncoligist, and that they should. So they have an appointment with one in about 2 weeks.

I've been trying to do some research on the net, but is that correct? Is Chondro not really treatable with chemo or radiation?

My sister died from cancer back in 89. She was 19... I was 17. Up until the very end I always thought the docs would cure her... so I took it very hard when they weren't able to. Needless to say, when it comes to cancer, I don't really think about positive outcomes... they just don't seem to happen with the people I've lost. So I'm not really expecting this to be a good ending for my friend. I know one site I was looking at said something like a 45% rate at 5 years... not good odds in my opinion.

Anyway, what type of treatments work with this type of cancer? Any? It's going to come a time where they just can't cut him open and remove stuff anymore...

- Unfortunately, chondrosarcomas don't seem to respond to chemo or radiotherapy. Treatment is almost always surgical, and once they have started to spread, the prognosis is not good, as you have already seen. There are several kinds of chondrosarcomas (myxoid, mesenchymal, clear-cell, etc.) and at least 3 grades, with one being the least aggressive and 3 being the most. Because of the fairly early appearance of lung metastases, I suspect your friend probably had a grade 3 tumor. The worst kind is called "dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma"--it is a mixture of low-grade chondrosarcoma cells and high-grade spindle-shaped cells that have lost all the characteristics of cartilage cells ("dedifferentiation"). I hope this is not what your friend has, since the prognosis is especially poor for this type.

Here is a good general article about chondrosarcoma: http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic168.htm

-chondrosarcoma research program. Your friend might want to contact them: http://www.uifoundation.org/news/2002/apr01.shtml Here is a short description from the site: The UI's group of leading scientists and clinicians has launched an innovative and multidisciplinary chondrosarcoma research program, trying first to advance basic understanding of these malignancies, which are quite unlike the tumors found in breast cancer, for example. So far, it is difficult for physicians to determine just from a tumor's appearance how aggressive an individual's chondrosarcoma might turn out to be, and this can affect early treatment.

Surgery is currently the main treatment for chondrosarcoma, but surgery isn't always effective at removing all areas of cancerous bone. Radical resections can be significantly disabling, and surgery is often not even an option if the cancer metastasizes. Unfortunately, chondrosarcoma doesn't usually respond to conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. Therefore, new options must be discovered.

UI researchers are using gene transfer technology to study telomerase activity (telomerase is an enzyme that appears to be responsible for the unchecked growth of cancer cells) as a possible indicator of chondrosarcoma's metastatic and growth potential, and are also working to identify the genes expressed in chondrosarcomas compared to those found in other tumor tissue and normal tissue. Results so far are "promising," according to team member Mary Hendrix. She added, "This is an understudied area of research that is in urgent need of attention."