Bone Tumors

Abstract

Overview As a group, bone tumors are uncommon lesions arising from a wide array of cells, affecting all ages of patients, and involving any bone in the body. Benign bone lesions are quite common and range from inactive to active and aggressive tumors. Treatment of inactive bone lesions is most often observation. Active benign bone lesions are frequently treated surgically by curettage. Benign aggressive tumors often require extended intralesional curettage with adjuncts. Among malignant bone lesions, the most common bone malignancy is metastatic carcinoma, and the most common primary bone malignancy is myeloma. The focus on bone involvement in these tumors is fixation of pathologic fractures and prediction of impending fractures. Primary bone sarcomas are rare tumors with characteristic clinical, radiographic, and pathologic features. Treatment of bone sarcomas most often requires wide surgical resection with or without chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Although often numerous specialties may contribute to their evaluation and care, orthopedic oncology is the only subspecialty focused specifically on all aspects of bone tumors.