Giant cell tumor of bone: oncologic and functional results

Giant cell tumor of bone is a challenging surgical problem due to its mostly aggressive growth with tendency to recur locally, to develop in rare instances pulmonary metastases without histologic evidence of malignant changes, and due to its potential to dedifferentiate into a frankly malignant tumor in a limited number of patients. It is treated in many different ways because of the difficulties in finding a type of treatment with the best functional results without compromising oncologic results. This paper describes 19 patients with giant cell tumor of bone. Following 19 procedures (including 6 intracapsular resections [curettage]) in 17 patients in our hospital only 2 recurrences (10.5%) occurred, both after curettage. Functional results after curettage without recurrence were favorable. Marginal or wide resections did not result in any recurrence, but were functionally inferior to curettage; an exception to the latter was the resection-arthrodesis of the distal radius in one patient.