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I am not sure if it is extremely common but it certainly seems to occur frequently enough. I checked into this when our Romy was diagnosed with bone cancer and learned the following:
1) Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) is fairly common in large breed dogs and typically appears first in the large leg bones. There is --at this point-- very little that can be done. Amputation is an option as long as the cancer has not traveled to the lungs which is its next stop usually. Amputation will give dogs 5-6months more with only 10% making it to 1 year more of life.
2) Getting bone cancer is not genetic...however dogs that lack cancer suppressor genes are much more likely to get bone cancer. Therefore, If a dog gets bone cancer it is suspected that the dog probably carries a homozygous recessive trait (that could have been hiding for generations in the heterozygous state) which equates to no cancer suppressor genes (there are three major ones according to the literature).
Talking to others, it certainly seems more common in certain lines than in others. For that reason genetics may play a more important role than we realize today.
Keith, Soo, Dustin, and Julie
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