Metastatic The cancer cells have spread from the bone in which the cancer began to other parts of the body. It may come back in the tissues where it first started or it may come back in another part of the body. How the Ewing's Family of Tumors Are Treated There are treatments for all patients with one of the Ewing's family of tumors. Surgery may be used in certain cases to try to remove the cancer and some of the tissue around it. Surgery may also be used to remove any tumor that is left after chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells.
Chemotherapy may be taken by pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drug enters the blood stream, travels through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. When more than one drug is given to kill tumor cells, the treatment is called combination chemotherapy. For treating the Ewing's family of tumors, surgery or radiation is often used to remove the local tumor and chemotherapy is then given to kill any cancer cells that remain in the body. A supplement to the treatment options listed above is myeloablative therapy with stem cell support.