Bone sarcoma and malignant tumors of the retina

Secondary bone sarcomas are frequent among children who have been treated previously for a retinoblastoma. The main point is that these bone sarcoma occur almost always after a bilateral retinoblastoma and more often in the irradiated area; from these, the classical concept of "radiocancer" was generally admitted. However, since many authors reported bone sarcomas occurring in a different location from the irradiated area, radiotherapy cannot be by itself the causative factor of these secondary bone sarcomas. Therefore the genetical factor is probably one of the predisposing factor. The authors report 6 cases of bone sarcomas with a review of the literature of bone sarcomas occurring in the irradiated field or not, for children "cured" of retinoblastoma.