[Suspicion of bone tumor: planning of the biopsy from the pathologist's viewpoint]

Suspicion of a neoplastic lesion of bone presents particular problems for both clinicians and pathologists. In most cases biopsy will be planned and should be performed as for a malignant lesion. The material obtained must be representative as well as qualitatively and quantitatively adequate. X-ray data, intraoperative findings, and histopathologic results constitute the three prime sources of information on which diagnosis and prognosis are based; these condition the therapeutic modalities which must be elaborated in each case by a multidisciplinary approach.