One of the most common methods for surgical treatment of bone metastasis is curettage. Local adjuvants are used to improve the effect of curettage in local cancer surgery and they may exerted their effects either chemically either physically; in orthopaedic oncology the most common are phenol, liquid nitrogen, laser, cement and argon beam coagulation. The purpose of this article is to review the main characteristics of the most common chemical and physical agents used in bone oncology, emphasizing the toxic effects of some of them, especially phenol and liquid nitrogen.