Giant-Cell Tumour

Abstract

This, the most common of the tumours of the hand after the synovial cyst, still forms the subject of an unresolved terminological and aetiological debate. The first case reported by Chassaignac in 1852 was regarded as a malignant tumour of the tendon sheaths, as was then the case for all neoplasms containing giant cells. In 1857, Wells described their gross and microscopic features. The work of Heurtaux (1891) definitively established the benign nature of the condition, and the name of “myeloma of the tendon sheaths” was proposed in view of the presence of large cells analogous to myeloplaxes. Targett (1897) preferred to speak of “giant-cell tumours of the tendon sheaths” and Dor (1898), attributing a common origin to the two types of cells found (foam cells and giant cells) employed the term “myeloxanthoma”. The list below gives the terms used to designate this affection, which was also, despite the work of Pinkus and Pick (1908, cited by Masson and Woolsto 1927), long considered as part of diffuse xanthomatosis.