Epidemiology of bone tumors in Lebanon: a retrospective study from 2000 to 2022 at a tertiary center

Future Sci OA. 2023 Aug 8;9(9):FSO886. doi: 10.2144/fsoa-2023-0102. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Aim: Bone tumors are rare and have an uneven geographic distribution.

Methods: 730 patients diagnosed with bone tumors were included in this retrospective analysis.

Results: With a 64% rate of malignancy, the most common tumors were metastasis (40%) mostly in the axial skeleton, Osteosarcoma (9%) mostly in the femur, Osteochondroma (8%) mostly in the femur, giant cell tumors (7%) mostly in the knee, and Ewing's sarcoma (6%) mostly in the axial skeleton.

Conclusion: Even though a some of the tumors have a predilection for certain localizations in the human body, they may differ in the middle-eastern population. One must also pay attention to the higher rates of malignancies as compared with other cohorts.

Keywords: Ewing's sarcoma; Middle-East; bone metastasis; bone tumors; epidemiology; osteosarcoma.

Plain language summary

With significant morbidity and mortality, bone tumors incidence is low and varies geographically. In our Lebanese population, Seven-hundred-thirty patients with bone tumors were identified with a 64% rate of malignancy with osteosarcoma being the most common primary bone cancer and metastasis being the overall most prevalent bone malignancy. This higher rate of malignancy compared with other populations should be taken into consideration when evaluating Lebanese or Middle eastern patients.