GIANT CELL TUMOR OF BONE

The term "giant cell tumor" was first proposed by Bloodgood, who in 1919 reported 47 patients cured by curettage and bone grafting. The British investigators, according to Willis,¹ admit the propriety of this term but prefer the term osteoclastoma, because the cells which compose the tumor are osteoclastic rather than osteoblastic. Jaffe, Lichtenstein and Portis,² among more recent investigators, regard the giant cell tumor as a genuine neoplasm arising from the undifferentiated supporting connective tissue of the marrow. The tumor exhibits benign characteristics clinically and pathologically, but recurrence after treatment is not uncommon and the tumor may take on invasive qualities and metastasize. Histologically, the tumor is composed of a vascularized network of spindle-shaped or ovoid stromal cells and multinuclear giant cells. In about two thirds of the cases, these tumors develop before the age of 30, the greatest number occurring in the third decade. Men and women