Radionuclide bone scanning of medullary chondrosarcoma

Technetium-99m methylene diphosphonate bone scans of 18 medullary chondrosarcomas of bone were correlated with pathologic macrosections of the resected tumors. There was increased scan uptake by all 18 tumors, and the uptake in 15 scans corresponded accurately to the anatomic extent of the tumors. Only three scans displayed increased uptake beyond the true tumor margins; thus, the "extended pattern of uptake" beyond the true tumor extent is much less common in medullary chondrosarcomas than in many other primary bone tumors. Therefore, increased uptake beyond the apparent radiographic margin of the tumor suggests possible occult tumor spread. Pathologically, there was intense reactive new bone formation and hyperemia around the periphery of all 18 tumors, and there were foci of enchondral ossification, hyperemia, or calcification within the tumor itself in nearly every tumor. Three scans displayed less uptake in the center of the tumors than around their peripheries. One of these tumors was necrotic in the center, but the other two were pathologically no different from tumors that displayed homogeneous uptake on the scan.