Imaging of Bone tumors
BY
Dr.Ahmed Refaey
- Primary bone tumors are relatively uncommon, and malignant bone tumors are far less common than benign.
- The true incidence of benign bone tumors is difficult to estimate since the majority are asymptomatic and therefore are likely never discovered.
- The incidence of bone sarcoma is estimated to be 0.8/100,000 individuals; bone sarcomas occur 10x less frequently than soft tissue sarcomas.
- While some bone tumors or tumor-like lesions may be easily identified by radiographic characteristics, many require further imaging.
- Diagnosis, staging, and biopsy can be challenging and usually depend heavily on imaging.
- When evaluating bone tumors, it is important to consider the relative incidence of the lesion.
- Enchondroma and nonossifying fibroma/benign fibrous cortical defect are the most frequent benign lesions, while metastatic tumor and multiple myeloma are the most common malignant lesions, followed by osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, and Ewing sarcoma.
- There are also diseases associated with development of bone tumors; these underlying diseases may be known by clinical history or may be apparent on imaging studies.
- High-risk associations for development of sarcomas include enchondroma (particularly in Ollier and Mafucci disease, degenerating to chondrosarcoma), familial retinoblastoma syndrome (osteosarcoma), and Rothmund-Thompson syndrome (osteosarcoma).
- Moderate-risk associations include osteochondroma (chondrosarcoma), Paget disease (osteosarcoma and other sarcomas), and previous irradiation (osteosarcoma and other sarcomas).
- Low-risk associations include bone infarct (malignant fibrous histiocytoma), fibrous dysplasia (fibrosarcoma), chronic osteomyelitis, metallic and polyethylene implants, osteoblastoma, giant cell tumor, and chondroblastoma.
You can watch the lecture
part 1
part 2