Osteosarcoma (OS) is a class of cancer originating from bone, mainly afflicting children or young adults. It is the second highest cause of cancer-related death in these age groups, mainly due to development of often fatal metastasis, usually in the lungs. Survival for these patients is poor despite the aggressive use of surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. Thus, new effective drugs and other forms of therapy are needed. This article reviews the biology and the state of the art management of OS. New experimental drugs and potential therapies targeting molecular pathways of OS are also discussed.

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Fluorine-containing polymeric materials are receiving increasing attention as imaging probes in fluorine-19 magnetic resonance imaging (F MRI), for example to enable quantitative in vivo detection of cells. Here we describe the one-pot polymerization synthesis of F-containing functional poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate-co-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl acrylate-b-poly(styrene-co-3-vinylbenzaldehyde) (poly(OEGA-co-TFEA)-b-poly(St-co-VBA)) copolymers as a new class of fluorinated MRI agent. A range of nanoparticle morphologies, including spheres, worm-like particles, and vesicles were formed as a consequence of polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). It was found that the extent of cell uptake strongly depends on the morphology of the nano-objects, with preferable uptake for worm-like particles compared to spherical nanoparticles and vesicles. All the nano-objects have a single resonance in theF NMR spectrum with relatively short MRI relaxation times, which were independent of the morphology of the nano-objects. These results confirm that these polymeric nano-objects of varied morphologies are promising as F MRI imaging agents for use in tracking of cells and selective MRI.