Bone Tumors

Question 1

What are the most common histological types of bone tumors?

Answer 1

Osteosarcoma; 
chondrosarcoma; 
Ewing sarcoma; less frequently, 
chordoma; 
malignant fibrous histiocytoma and 
angiosarcoma. 
Other types of tumors are even less frequent.

Question 2

Which patients are more susceptible to develop osteosarcoma?

Answer 2

Young patients and old patients (especially associated with Paget’s disease)

Question 3

What are osteoids?

Answer 3

In histology, osteoid is the unmineralized, organic portion of the bone matrix that forms prior to the maturation of bone tissue. Osteoblasts begin the process of forming bone tissue by secreting the osteoid as several specific proteins. When the osteoid becomes mineralized, it and the adjacent bone cells have developed into new bone tissue.

Question 4

What is the most common genetic abnormality involved in Ewings tumor?

Answer 4

Genetic exchange between chromosomes can cause cells to become cancerous. Most cases of Ewing’s sarcoma (85%) are the result of a translocation between chromosomes 11 and 22, which fuses the EWS gene of chromosome 22 to the FLI1 gene of chromosome 11.