A view of the Belgian headquarters of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, in Brussels in this January 23, 2007 file photo.
In PHOTO: A view of the Belgian headquarters of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, in Brussels in this January 23, 2007 file photo. Reuters/Stringer

Data suggests that close to 24 patients every year in Austria are found to be diagnosed with osteosarcoma. This malignant bone tumour without treatment proves to be fatal. Most of the time diagnosis takes place in young people who are aged between ten and 25 years.

The causes of osteosarcoma are still mostly unknown to the scientists and surgery is the only available method of treatment till date.

This work is done by a group of researchers led by Jochen Hofstätter of the University Department of Orthopedics at the MedUni Vienna in collaboration with Christina Streli from the Atomic Institute of the Vienna Technical University and Klaus Klaushofer from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Osteology.

They investigated for the first time ever worldwide the concentration of trace elements in bone tumours.

In order to do this, the affected region was first fixed through a test under the electron microscope followed by further investigation using synchrotron radiation.

"The results show that the concentration of iron and zinc in the tumor tissue is several times higher than in healthy tissue. The tumor tissue therefore appears to create an environment in which trace elements are able to form bonds more easily. We are keen, however, to investigate the role of trace elements in more detail in further studies,” Hofstätter explained,

According to the researchers involved in this work, as compared to any other method, this current investigation came across as most technically challenging, but also it is known to produce maximum accuracy.

" According to Science Daily Reinhard Windhager, Head of the University Department of Orthopedics at the MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital and a member of the study group says: "In the field of drug-based therapy for osteosarcoma, there are still many unanswered questions: some tumors respond to chemotherapy, some don't. These new results could offer an approach for new, targeted and personalized forms of treatment."