Analysis of chromosomal imbalances in an elderly woman with a giant cell tumour

Differential diagnoses and therapeutic features of giant cell tumor of the bone in an elderly patient: A case report

INTRODUCTION

Giant cells tumor (GCT) of the bone is usually seen in young adults between the ages of 20 and 40. When occurring in older patients, diagnosis and therapeutic specific feature are to be considered. We underline those aspects through this case report.

CASE PRESENTATION

We report the case of a 73-year-old man presenting with a painful swelling knee. The diagnosis of GCT of proximal tibia was retained and the patient underwent extensive curettage, subchondral bone grafting and cementation of the residual cavity. The long-term results show a good functional outcome and no recurrence.

DISCUSSION

In this age group, other lesions have similar clinical and radiological presentations as GCT of bone. The diagnosis of a metastatic carcinoma is to be carefully ruled-out in this situation. While the option of large resection with joint arthroplasty is better accepted in ageing patients as a treatment of GCT of bone, this case suggests that jointpreserving methods should also be considered especially when there are no signs of osteoarthritis. While polymethylmethacrylate cementation is an efficient adjuvant in order to reduce recurrences, it may cause secondary osteoarthritis. Subchondral grafting seems to be a good alternative to prevent this complication.

CONCLUSION

Malignancies should be ruled-out before retaining the diagnosis of GCT of the bone after the age of 50. Conservative surgical treatment is always an option in this age group.

Whole-Exome Sequencing and Whole-Genome Sequencing in Critically Ill Neonates Suspected to Have Single-Gene Disorders

As the ability to identify the contribution of genetic background to human disease continues to advance, there is no discipline of medicine in which this may have a larger impact than in the care of the ill neonate. Newborns with congenital malformations, syndromic conditions, and inherited disorders often undergo an extensive, expensive, and long diagnostic process, often without a final diagnosis resulting in significant health care, societal, and personal costs. Although ethical concerns have been raised about the use of whole-genome sequencing in medical practice, its role in the diagnosis of rare disorders in ill neonates in tertiary care neonatal intensive care units has the potential to augment or modify the care of this vulnerable population of patients.

Giant Cell Tumor Bone in an Elderly Male- an Unusual Case Misdiagnosed on MRI as a Malignant Sarcoma

Giant cell tumor (GCT) of the bone is a benign locally aggressive neoplasm which accounts for 3-8 % of all primary bone tumors. 60-70 % of the patients with giant cell tumor of the bone occur in the age group of 20-40 years. Patients older than 55 years of age very rarely develop GCT. Although many case series have been published on giant cell tumor of the bone, even on extensive search of literature, we found only a single series of 10 cases focusing exclusively on giant cell tumors in elderly. They observed that there was no difference in behavior of GCT in elderly and younger patients in terms of location of tumor, radiographic features and clinical course. We present a case of GCT of tibia in an elderly male without any evidence of malignant transformation or dedifferentiation, despite magnetic resonance imaging revealing features of a malignant lesion.

Cytogenetic analysis of 101 giant cell tumors of bone: nonrandom patterns of telomeric associations and other structural aberrations

Giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB) is a benign but locally aggressive tumor with metastatic potential. We performed cytogenetic analysis on 101 GCTB from 92 patients. Karyotypes were obtained from 95 tumors, 47 of which had clonal aberrations. The majority of the cytogenetically abnormal GCTB had multiple, up to 28 per tumor, clones. Clonal telomeric associations (tas) and other structural and numerical changes were found in about 70, 60, and 30%, respectively, of clonally abnormal tumors. Forty-seven aberrations were recurrent, of which 35 are novel. The vast majority of the recurrent aberrations were tas, confirming the important role of telomeric fusions in the development of GCTB. The frequency of tas in GCTB cultures increased with passaging, suggesting a selective advantage of tas-positive cells in vitro. The termini most frequently involved in tas were 22p, 13p, 15p, 21p, 14p, 19q, 1q, 12p, 11p, and 20q. The frequency of tas (irrespective of their clonality) was significantly higher in tumors carrying clonal changes, indicating that tas are precursors of other types of aberrations. In line with this assumption, the chromosomes preferentially involved in tas in a given tumor were also the ones most often affected by other rearrangements. We did not find the previously reported amplicon in 20q11.1, assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization in 10 tumors. Nor did we find any association between cytogenetic features and adverse clinical outcome. Thus, local recurrences probably depend more on the adequacy of surgical treatment than on the intrinsic biology of the tumors.

Novel karyotypes in giant cell-rich lesions of bone

Giant cell-rich lesions of bone, including giant cell tumor of bone, giant cell reparative granuloma (GCRG), and aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC), may have overlapping clinical, radiologic, and histopathologic features. In fact, GCRG and solid ABC are currently differentiated solely based on skeletal location. Prior cytogenetic studies have reported that telomeric associations are present in the majority of giant cell tumors of bone, whereas translocations involving 16q22 and/or 17p13 are characteristic of ABCs. There is only one previously published karyotype of a GCRG, which revealed a reciprocal translocation, t(X;4)(q22;q31.3). We report 3 cases of giant cell-rich bone lesions with novel karyotypes: one lesion located in the first metacarpal, a typical location for GCRG, was histologically consistent with a giant cell tumor and showed the following karyotype [46,XX,inv(2)(p13q21),t(inv2;11)(q21;q13)]; the second lesion, also a giant cell tumor of bone, in the sacrum showed the following karyotype [46,XX,r(9)(p24q34)[cp7]/46,idem,?r(16)(p13.3q24)[cp10]/46,XX]. The third lesion, a hard palate mass, had the histopathologic features of a GCRG and a karyotype showing a reciprocal translocation, 46,XY,t(2;10)(q23;q24). These findings suggest that at least a subset of GCRGs may be neoplastic and that these lesions differ cytogenetically from classic giant cell tumors of bone or solid ABC, although the latter entity is otherwise indistinguishable from reparative granuloma. Further cytogenetic characterization of giant cell-rich bone lesions may improve the utility of karyotyping as a tool in their differential diagnosis and may shed light on the pathogenetic relationship between these lesions.