Giant Cell Tumor of the Bone

This article describes a case of giant cell tumor (GCT) of bones at the distal phalanx of the left thumb in a 74 year old male patient who showed pain and swelling in the left thumb. The article discusses the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of GCT. GCT is usually not reported in adults over the age of 55 and is mostly seen at the end of the long bones, but this case involves the GCT at finger bones. The patient also had previous history of having skin cancer. Although researches showed that there is no significant difference between the GCT of young and older individuals, GCT of hand bones have been reported to be much more aggressive in nature rather than the GCT occurring at any other position.

Running head: GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
Giant Cell Tumor of the Bone
Name of the student
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1GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
Abstract
Objective: To describe the case of giant cell tumor (GCT) of bones at the distal phalanx of
the left thumb in a 74 year old male patient who showed pain and swelling in the left thumb.
Case summary: 74 year old white male patient with past history of neoplasm of the skin,
represented with pain and swelling in his left thumb that had been there for almost a month.
X-ray and MRI tests confirmed the presence of lytic lesion and an osseous neoplasm along
with GCT, respectively. Amputation of the proximal phalanx of the left thumb was
performed. Although the pathological tests showed inter-osseous GCT of bone and GCT
invasion of the proximal phalanx, post-operative progress stated that the patient had been
healing properly.
Discussion: GCT is usually not reported in adults over the age of 55 and is mostly seen at the
end of the long bones, but this case involves the GCT at finger bones. The patient also had
previous history of having skin cancer. Although researches showed that there is no
significant difference between the GCT of young and older individuals, GCT of hand bones
have been reported to be much more aggressive in nature rather than the GCT occurring at
any other position.
Conclusions: Metastasis of GCT has not been pathologically determined, but several factors
have been indicated that are associated with the theory of metastasis. Previous occurrence of
cancers such as skin neoplasms, can lead to GCT of bones, even at unusual locations such as
the finger bones.

2GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
Introduction
Giant cell tumor (GCT) of the bone is known to be a, intermediate and locally
aggressive tumor which rarely metastasizes. GCT is a type of primary bone tumor which
tends to become more aggressive locally. Giant cell tumors are so named due to their
appearance as large multinucleated osteoclast-like giant cells which remain distributed
together with stromal cells and monocytes. Macroscopic images have revealed that GCT is
quite vascularized and consists of bands of cellular or collagen fibrous tissues. These cells are
the reason behind the excessive bone resorption done by the tumor. The stromal cells
predominantly promotes the fusion of the monocytes with the giant cells (Raskin et al. 2013).
Thus, GCT attributes to the process of giant cell formation and thereby the mechanism of
bone resorption.
Case Report
The patient is a 74 year old male who has had painful swelling in his left thumb for
almost a month along with sinus problems for a week. He had a past medical history of
suffering from insomnia. His medications include aspirin, calcium carbonate, Folic acid MV,
pravastatin, psyllium seed and zolpidem. His physical exam reported of having maxillary
sinus tenderness and erythematous nasal mucosa along with erythematous and mildly tense
and swollen left thumb. He was further instructed to take fluticasone and doxycycline for
acute non-recurrent maxillary sinusitis and had been referred to go through an ambulatory
orthopaedic surgery for his left thumb swelling. He also needed to take the influenza vaccine.
The patient had history of other malignant neoplasm of the skin, actinic keratosis and
other seborrheic keratosis. He had hypercholesterolemia, diverticulosis of colon that led to
haemorrhage. The patient had a past medical history of insomnia. The problems of the patient

3GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
that had been resolved include his insomnia, allergic rhinitis, Helicobacter pylori gastritis,
conjunctivitis and rib pain. He also had an appendectomy surgery. The patient is married.
Reports said that he has never smoked and never had any smokeless tobacco either. He did
not have any past surgical history in his finger. He reported that he does not even drink
alcohol or take illicit drugs.
The orthopaedic consultant reported that the patient had developed swelling at the tip
of his left thumb that gradually became numb. Although he did have a history of a solitary
pulmonary nodule in his right lower lobe. X-ray tests diagnosed lytic changes at the tip of the
left thumb which is interpreted to be an inclusion cyst. No change in the size of his
pulmonary nodule was observed. To determine the cause of the lytic changes at the left
thumb MRI was done to find out if it is an inclusion cyst or an infection or a distant
metastases (Chan et al. 2015).
His X-ray showed soft tissue lesion in the left thumb. This lesion erupted from the tuft
of the left thumb with cortical disruption. At the overlying region there is mild soft tissue
fullness. X-ray of the chest revealed stable right basilar granuloma and no evidence of pleural
effusions or pneumothorax was observed. There were no acute cardio-pulmonary process.
MRI of the left thumb with and without the contrast was obtained. It showed an expansile
lesion involving the tuft of the distal phalanx of the thumb. The lesion was well-

4GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
circumscribed and demonstrated expansion and thinning of the cortex and homogenous post-
contrast enhancement (Cowan and Singh 2013). This was considered to be an osseous
neoplasm and this lesion included a giant cell tumor or GCT (Skubitz 2014).
At the follow up at an orthopaedic hand surgery clinic, the patient was noted to have a
lytic lesion on his left thumb’s distal phalanx and his MRI showed large soft tissue mass that
was expansile involving the distal phalanx. After summing up the results, the radiologist had
confirmed that all the signs are related to an osseous neoplasm (van der Heijden et al. 2014).
They had included GCT versus other primary or metastatic lesion in the differential
diagnosis. The patient continued to have the numbness in his left thumb, but no change in the
appearance of the lesion or in the remaining median, ulnar and radial nerve was observed.
Fig. 2 Appearance of GCT on MRI: a) T1 weighted b) T2 weighted
After biopsy, disarticulation of the amputation of the proximal phalanx of the left
thumb was suggested. The tip of the distal phalanx of the left thumb was sent for pathologic
tests along with the articular margin and resection of the proximal phalanx of the left thumb.
Proper care was taken to ensure no cross contamination results from the previous biopsy site
to the site of the tumor (Oliveira et al. 2013). At the post-operative visit to the orthopaedics
unit, it was found that the patient had been healing quite well and there have been no sign of
infection. Although he showed some tenderness at the radial side of the left thumb stump.
The pathological tests of the patient revealed inter-osseous GCT of bone and GCT invasion in

5GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
the proximal phalanx; this clearly implicated that the tumor had spread between the finger
bones. A repeat X-ray is considered after 6 months to check for any metastatic lesion from
this tumor.
Discussion
The Giant Cell Tumor (GCT) of the bones is usually seen among people of the age
group of 20-40 and is extremely unusual in people who are aged above 55. Along with this,
there have been some incidences found where GCT has been reported in patients aged 62-78
(Ansari, Prakash and Machhindra 2014). In the case reported above the patient had a medical
history of skin carcinomas and is presently reported to have GCT of bones in his left thumb.
This is a highly unusual place of occurrence of GCT since it has been mostly found to be
occurring at the end of the long bones.
GCT of hand bones are comparatively more aggressive and recurring than GCT in the
rest of the skeleton. It also differs in nature from the GCT of the long bones and cannot be
treated with simple curettage but with scintigraphy to minimize the chances of multicentricity
(Meena et al. 2015). Also, it has been found that GCT of hand bones usually occurs in
younger population. Most often GCT transforms into sarcoma after radiation, although its
malignant transformation is less spontaneous. Without radiation therapy, GCT
dedifferentiates into osteosarcoma. It is challenging to differentiate GCT from other entities
of giant cells, and there are only a few morphologic features of GCT that are presented in 55
year or older patients. In such older patients, fibrosis is quite common although it results in
diagnostic challenges. However, mitotic activity and necrosis of GCT in this age group has
raised concerns for malignancy (Brien et al. 1997).
In another article the researchers tried to find out if the GCT of bones in elderly
patients behave somewhat differently than when it occurs in the younger patients. They have

6GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
also outlined the issues that are posed on the older people by diagnostic processes which are
different from the usual procedures done with the younger patients (Chakarun et al. 2013).
The report ultimately concluded that the GCT of bones in elderly people occur due to
chromosomal imbalances and their treatment options are also limited. The study also
demonstrated that the location and behaviour of the GCT of bone in elderly patients is
identical in nature to younger patients. Although the lesions were less aggressive than in
younger patients since no sign of recurrence was observed.
Fig. 3 Usual appearance of GCT within an apophysis
Conclusion
Understanding the pathogenesis of the giant cell tumor (GCT) disease of the bones is
a prerequisite for the purpose of further research and development of novel medications and
targeted treatments in this arena of medical biology. Although the pulmonary metastasis of
GCT has not been pathologically determined, several factors have been indicated that are
associated with the theory of pulmonary spread. Giant cell tumor of bone is typically
considered as benign. Although at times, such tumors may demonstrate aggressive nature that
mimics the lesions in other bones. The first mainstay treatment for GCT was mostly surgical,

7GIANT CELL TUMOR OF THE BONE
with a recurrence rate of almost 15-25%, but sophisticated research approaches have been
able to develop a novel monoclonal antibody named denosumab that resulted in dramatic
treatment responses in all the studies. The amputation of the proximal phalanx of the left
thumb has been proven to be effective for the patient. Although further recovery and follow-
up check-ups were required.

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