The Pathology of Giant Cell Tumor of Bone

Abstract

Giant cell tumor of bone is a distinctive neoplasm formed by a combination of multinucleated giant cells and cells of a mononuclear stromal background. Over three-quarters of the giant cell tumors reported occur when the skeleton has reached maturity in the third decade of life and later. Those that are observed before the third decade generally occur close to 20 years of age. Rarely are tumors reported in children under 14 years of age, and one wonders whether these could represent variants of other tumors with the preponderance of giant cells as a histologic feature. Giant cell tumors of bone represent anywhere from 4–10% of all bone tumors in reported series and are said to have an overall incidence of approximately 0.39 cases per million of population.