Background: Limited remains known on giant cell-rich osteosarcoma (GCRO) with current studies being case reports or smaller series. This investigation compared GCRO and conventional osteoblastic osteosarcoma (OOS) with regard to demographics and survival.
Methods: An institutional tumor registry was used to identify 11 patients (six males) treated for GCRO. Mean age was 43 years. Staging showed American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stages IIA in four and IIB in seven patients. Mean follow-up was 14 years. Study initiatives were: (1) Comparison of demographics between GCRO and 167 OOS from our institutional registry, (2) Differences in survival between GCRO and 33 OOS case controls (based on sex and AJCC stage), as well as 10 OOS using an age-based propensity match, and (3) Summary of all GCRO cases reported in the literature.
Results: (1) Sex (p = 0.53), grading (p = 0.56), AJCC stage (p = 0.42), and chemotherapeutic response rate (p = 0.67) did not differ between groups. Age was significantly increased in GCRO (p = 0.001). (2) Case-control and propensity-matched groups revealed no difference in disease-free survival, local recurrence, and distant disease-free survival at 2 years (p > 0.05). (3) Mean age of 56 patients (50% males) reported in the literature was 26 years. After merging with our 11 cases, the 2-year disease-free survival was 66%.
Conclusions: GCRO remains a rare disease with high short-term mortality. Although affecting older patients more than conventional osteosarcoma, GCRO should not be viewed as a predictor of survival compared to OOS.
Keywords: atypical osteosarcoma; cancer survival; osteoclast-type giant cells; osteosarcoma demographics; survival predictors.
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