Clinical characteristics of giant cell tumor around knee: 376 cases report

Abstract

Objective To explore the clinical and imaging characteristics of giant cell tumor around the knee and to improve the level of diagnosis through analyzing the epidemiological and radiological features. Methods The data of 376 patients with giant cell tumor around the knee who underwent surgical treatment in Giant Cell Tumor Team of China (GTOC) were collected from March 2000 to July 2014, to record clinical characteristics including gender, age, position and radiological features. A multicentric study was applied to analyze the epidemiological features of giant cell tumor around the knee. Results Primary group of 302 cases and recurrent group of 74 cases developed an integrated study group of 376 cases, including 198 males and 178 females. The mean age of the whole study group was 35.6±12.8 years old (range, 12-78 years old). The mean age of female group was 33.5±12.0 years old which was younger than male group, with a mean age of 37.4±13.2 years old. 175 cases (46.5%) occurred in the left knee joint, which was less than the right side consisting of 201 cases (53.5%), and there was a statistical significance between them. There were 202 cases (53.7%) that located in distal femur and 174 cases (46.3%) in proximal tibia, between which there was no statistical significance. In the whole study group, 72 cases (19.1%) were found to have a centricity growth of giant cell tumor, which were remarkably less than non-centricity growth group of 304 cases (80.9%). There were 261 (69.4%) cases without fracture, 73 cases (19.4%) with simple fracture and 42 cases (11.2%) with complex fracture, which showed statistical significance between them. Conclusion Clinical and imaging characteristics of giant cell tumor around the knee are different in various areas and between different genders. It is generally agreed in our study that with a higher imaging grading according to the system of Campanacci, the risk of pathological fracture, the proportion of extra-capsular lesions, and the rate of surgical selection of segmental resection are all higher. Key words: Knee Joint; Giant cell tumor of bone; Disease characteristics; Multicenter study