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Dr. Randall, in his article, Ewing’s Sarcoma Family of Tumors (ESFT), states that, "It is critical that a patient diagnosed with ESFT is treated at a center very familiar with this disease". He goes on to state, "Advances in chemotherapy (CTx) have significantly improved survival. Surgical removal of the primary tumor generally occurs after a course of initial chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is started first to attack any potential tumor cells that have broken off from the main tumor (metastasized) but have not yet been detected by the staging studies."
The treatment for Ewing's sarcoma, like the disease itself, is aggressive. It is normally 9-12 months long and can consist of 10-14 cycles of chemotherapy, resection surgery to remove the primary tumor, and radiation to the local site. The chemotherapeutic agents used differ a bit depending on the specific protocol the doctor is following. Each of these approaches is discussed separately: chemotherapy, surgery, radiation.
Second Line Treatments If the first line treatment isn't successful, which can be seen after 2-4 cycles of chemotherapy by scanning the primary tumor for growth or development or growth of metastases, then the chemotherapy regimen is frequently changed to another regimen. There is not one particular regimen that all or most oncologists use; a number of them have similar clinic trial results, i.e., have been shown to be equally as good. Once a chemotherapy is found which the tumors respond to, the surgery and radiation components are continued.
Clinical Trials When tumors fail to respond to the first and second line treatments, patients may turn to clinical trials.
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