Chondrosarcoma of bone in children

Chondrosarcomas are cartilaginous tumors, and chondrosarcomas of bone occur primarily in adults. The condition can occur in children, however, and in some reports in the medical literature the condition is said to have a poorer prognosis in children than in adults. But this was not supported by the current study of 47 chondrosarcomas in patients under the age of 17. Only one of the chondrosarcomas was of high grade. The low-grade histological appearance of the other tumors was reflected in the long-term follow-up of the patients for an average of eight years, during which time metastatic spread of the tumors was not observed. The treatment of chondrosarcoma is surgical, and although the prognosis is favorable, local recurrence and the necessity of further surgery is not uncommon. The difference between the outcome of chondrosarcoma in the present report and that in previous reports may be due to differences in diagnostic criteria used for defining chondrosarcoma. In the current study, the authors did not consider cases of the more malignant chondroblastic osteosarcoma, although cases of this tumor would be classified with chondrosarcoma by others. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)