Sixty patients with extremity osteosarcoma were treated with intraarterial cisplatin. This was followed by surgical resection (amputation or limb salvage) and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy utilizing two different protocols. Seventy-five percent of patients achieved an initial response. Overall disease-free survival was 58%. The number of patients treated with limb-salvage surgery gradually increased to the extent that 80% of newly-registered patients achieved a response and were subjected to limb salvage. Disease-free survival was 48% in amputation and 68% in limb salvage. The only factors found to have prognostic significance in determining disease-free survival were extent of tumor destruction induced by preoperative chemotherapy and tumor size.