Just two months after Grace completed treatment for osteosarcoma in her arm and shoulder, a follow-up scan revealed that the cancer had metastasized. Osteosarcoma metastasis occurs when bone cancer spreads from its original location in the bone to other parts of the body, often the lungs, which was the case for Grace.
Grace’s doctors used a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and cryoblation in an effort to slow the spread of the cancer and give her more time. In 2023, when the cancer reached her spine, she decided to stop treatment and spend the rest of her time at home with her mom, Carrie, and her service dog, Snickerdoodle. She was with both of them when she passed away, just one week after her 15th birthday.
Grace’s story is all too familiar. While osteosarcoma can be cured in about 70 percent of cases when the disease is confined to the bone, outcomes are far worse if a patient already has metastases when diagnosed or develops metastatic disease after treatment.
Osteosarcoma often spreads to the lungs because the cancer cells travel through the bloodstream and lodge in lung tissue, though the exact mechanism is not fully understood. When this occurs, the disease is fatal 70 to 80 percent of the time. That is because chemotherapy does not work as well, and surgical options become more difficult.
Researchers are working to identify genetic drivers that could be behind the differences in osteosarcoma cells that metastasize compared to those that do not.
