For malignant tumors of bone, a “wide resection” is performed. This means that the tumor is removed with a surrounding area of normal bone and soft tissue. Examples of malignant bone tumors include osteosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma and chondrosarcoma.

In many cases, the patient undergoes chemotherapy before and after surgery. This helps shrink the tumor and make surgery safer and easier. For more information, refer to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) webpage on limb sparing surgery.

Since many malignant tumors affect the ends of bones, it is common to have to replace a joint along with the bone - most commonly the knee or hip joint. In these cases, an endoprosthesis (an implanted prosthesis) is used to replace the portion of bone and adjacent joint
Endoprosthetic design has advanced tremendously and now off-the-shelf implants can be used to reconstruct almost any bone defect. The implants are "modular", meaning they are assembled at the time of surgery from component pieces.