Background: There are no recent reports of giant cell tumors of bone in a large series of Chinese people. The present study was designed to review the epidemiological characteristics and outcomes of surgical management in a large series of Chinese patients with giant cell tumor of an extremity, treated at a single institution.
Methods: The records and images of 621 patients in whom a benign giant cell tumor in an extremity was treated between 1989 and 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. There were 359 male and 262 female patients. The mean age at diagnosis was 31.4 years (range, eleven to seventy-one years). Sixty-six percent of the giant cell tumors were localized around the knee. Surgical treatments primarily included curettage, extensive curettage, and resection. The median duration of follow-up was forty-nine months (range, eighteen to 256 months).
Results: Giant cell tumor accounted for 13.7% of all primary bone tumors treated at our institution. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the only variable that contributed to recurrence-free survival was the type of surgical treatment. The local recurrence rate after extensive curettage was 8.6%, which was significantly lower than the 56.1% recurrence rate after curettage alone. Bone-grafting did not affect local tumor control after extensive curettage; the local recurrence rate was 11.1% if bone graft was used. Recurrent giant cell tumor can be treated by further curettage or resection, with acceptable re-recurrence rates of 6.7% and 9.3% respectively. The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score for patients treated with extensive curettage was 92.6%, which was significantly higher than that for patients treated with resection. Twenty-one (3.4%) of the 621 patients developed benign pulmonary metastasis, with a favorable outcome, and three patients presented with multifocal giant cell tumors.
Conclusions: The incidence of giant cell tumor in the Chinese population may be higher than that in Western countries, and it has a male predilection. The results of the present study suggest that extensive curettage provides favorable local control and satisfactory functional outcomes.