Giant cell tumor of bone: Multimodal approach

BACKGROUND: The clinical behavior and treatment of giant cell tumor of bone is still perplexing. The aim of this study is to clarify the clinico-pathological correlation of tumor and its relevance in treatment and prognosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety -three cases of giant cell tumor were treated during 1980-1990 by different methods. The age of the patients varied from 18-58 yrs with male and female ratio as 5:4. The upper end of the tibia was most commonly involved (n=31), followed by the lower end of the femur(n=21), distal end of radius(n=14), upper end of fibula (n=9), proximal end of femur(n=5), upper end of the humerus(n=3), iliac bone(n=2), phalanx (n=2) and spine(n=1). The tumors were also encountered on uncommon sites like metacarpals (n=4) and metatarsal(n=1). Fifty four cases were treated by curettage and bone grafting. Wide excision and reconstruction was performed in twenty two cases. Nine cases were treated by wide excision while primary amputation was performed in four cases. One case required only curettage. Three inaccessible lesions of ilium and spine were treated by radiotherapy. RESULTS: 19 of 54 treated by curettage and bone grafting showed a recurrence. The repeat curettage and bone grafting was performed in 18 cases while amputation was done in one. One each out of the cases treated by wide excision and reconstruction and wide excision alone recurred. In this study we observed that though curettage and bone grafting is still the most commonly adopted treatment, wide excision of tumor with reconstruction has shown lesser recurrence. CONCLUSION: For radiologically well-contained and histologically typical tumor, curettage and autogenous bone grafting is the treatment of choice. The typical tumors with radiologically deficient cortex, clinically aggressive tumors and tumors with histological Grade III should be treated by wide excision and reconstruction.