China Science

OBJECTIVE: To study the role of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in thediagnosis of bone tumors and its impact on therapeutic decisions. STUDY DESIGN: A group of 122cases of bone tumor were evaluated by FNAC. Detailed diagnoses were compared with the availablehistology. RESULTS: Diagnostic accuracy of FNAC was 90.5% in this study. FNAC could differentiatebetween various round cell tumors such as Ewing’s sarcoma and myeloma, among various giant cell-richlesions of bone and between the benign and malignant chondroid bone tumors. Some uncommon variantswere also correctly diagnosed. In metastatic bone tumors, the source of primary malignancy could notbe indicated in the majority (52.9%) because of the poorly differentiated morphology. Osteoid orosteoid-like material was demonstrable in 63.6% cases of osteogenic sarcoma. A case ofchondroblastic osteogenic sarcoma that was reported as chondrosarcoma was the only diagnostic errorin the study. FNAC obviated the need of open biopsy in 63.8% patients, and therapeutic decisionswere made according to the cytologic diagnoses. CONCLUSION: FNAC plays an important role in theearly diagnosis of bone tumors by its accuracy, ease of use and rapidity and is helpful in makingthe therapeutic decisions.

Wahane,RN　Lele,VR　Bobhate,SK
Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Nagpur, Maharashtra,India. rupesh_w_ngp@indiatimes.com

Adolescent　 Adult　 Aged　 Biopsy, Fine-Needle　 Bone Neoplasms Bone and Bones