Patient Resources

OSI Connect

Osteosarcoma Answers and Assistance

OSI Connect is our free, easy-to-use resource for patients who have been diagnosed with osteosarcoma, or suffered a relapse after initial treatment. These events are devastating and overwhelming, and start a desperate pursuit to gain knowledge and understanding. Often people turn first to the internet but encounter an avalanche of search results with no way to assess their accuracy, quality, or applicability. This resource helps patients and their families find answers to their questions from an experienced, knowledgeable osteosarcoma physician about all aspects of the disease, including treatment, possible side effects, and advice for getting the most out of your visits with your treating physician. Se habla español.

Get Connected

SEARCH FOR

A Clinical Trial

The Osteosarcoma Institute is pleased to connect interested parties with CareBox, a free and confidential trial matching service that will help guide you through a search and referral process to find a clinical trial that may be right for you. This matching system shortens the clinical trial search process from weeks to minutes, helping users identify clinical trials with eligibility criteria that match a patient’s specific diagnosis, stage, symptoms, and treatment history. Fill out your contact information below, and a Clinical Trial Navigator will call you within one business day. Se habla Español.

Supported By

Cole Bright, Osteosarcoma Survivor

Want to share your story with us?

Fill out the form below to tell us about yourself. Sharing stories of osteosarcoma families helps us raise awareness and funds for much-needed research.

Share My Story

Additional Resources

The Osteosarcoma Institute strives to raise awareness and galvanize advocacy of osteosarcoma in communities across the United States. From our wide-ranging resource library, below are a few resources for osteosarcoma patients and families that can offer a helping hand in the cancer journey.

How to Support a Cancer Patient Emotionally

Two pediatric psychologists offer advice on how caregivers of cancer patients can support their loved ones through the emotional upheaval of cancer and get the support they need, too.

Cancer Patients: How to Be Your Best Advocate

Osteosarcoma patients share how they learned to ask questions, push for the medical care they needed, and be their own health advocate.

Practical Resources for Osteosarcoma Patients and Families

OSI Connect provides one-of-a-kind support for families facing an osteosarcoma diagnosis or recurrence.

Osteosarcoma in Canines

Robyn Roth and Mack McKinley's mastiff Arianna

Robyn and Mack’s Beloved Mastiff, Arianna

Click to Read their Osteosarcoma Story

Canine Osteosarcoma Background

The problem of cancer in pet dogs is significant. In the United States approximately 1 million pet dogs will be diagnosed with cancer each year. Cancers that develop in pet dogs share strong similarities with human cancer patients. Tumor initiation and progression are influenced by similar factors in both human and canine cancers, including age, nutrition, sex, reproductive status, and environmental exposures. The spectrum of cancers seen in pet dogs is as diverse as the cancers seen in human patients. Not surprisingly the genetic events that are understood to be associated with cancer development and progression in humans are also the same as those that occur in canine cancers. Furthermore, the conventional treatments that are effective in the treatment of human cancers are for the most part effective in the treatment of pet dogs cancers. The biological complexity of cancers in pet animals is high and emerges from a similar intra-tumoral (cell-to-cell) heterogeneity seen in human cancer patients. A natural consequence of this heterogeneity is the acquisition of resistance to therapy, recurrence of disease, and spread or metastasis to distant sites. In these ways the problem of cancer in pet dogs is identical to the problem of cancer in people.

Helping Patients on Both Sides of the Leash

An opportunity exists to help both pet dogs and people, particularly children with cancer. This opportunity integrates clinical trials that assess new drugs for the benefit of both canine and human cancer patients. The goal of this integrated effort is to speed the development of new cancer treatments by allowing questions to be answered in both dogs and humans rather than humans alone. The formal integration of studies that include pet dogs with cancer has recently begun and it is becoming a more common part of innovative cancer drug development.

Similarities in Canine and Human Osteosarcoma

Of the cancers that occur in both pet dogs and humans, osteosarcoma is perhaps the most similar. Osteosarcoma is the most common primary tumor of bone in both pet dogs and children. Pet dogs develop osteosarcoma at similar sites as pediatric patients, with identical microscopic features, and response to traditional treatment regimens such as surgery and chemotherapy. Most importantly, this cancer is associated with a high risk for spread from the bone to the lungs. An important difference between the species is that there are more than 10,000 new cases of osteosarcoma diagnosed in dogs each year, whereas there are approximately 800 osteosarcoma diagnoses made in people each year. New treatments are needed for this highly aggressive cancer in both species.

Resources