Clinical and pathological analysis of clear cell chondrosarcoma / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the clinical manifestations, imaging features, histopathological features, diagnostic pitfalls, treatment and prognosis of clear cell chondrosarcoma (CCCS).Methods:23 cases of CCCS admitted and operated from January 2010 to January 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. Among the 23 cases, 21 were males and 2 were females. There were 8 cases (35%) aged 21-40, 10 cases (43%) aged 41-60 and 5 cases (23%) aged 61-80. There were 8 femurs, 7 pelvis, 4 thoracolumbar spine, 3 sacrum and 1 tibia. The specimens were fixed with 10% phosphate-buffered formalin, decalcified with 5% nitric acid, embedded in paraffin and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and immunohistochemistry (Envision). The preoperative imaging and clinical symptoms, and the postoperative histopathological and immunophenotype under the microscope were collected. And the relevant literature was reviewed to summarize the clinical, imaging and pathomorphological characteristics of CCCS.Results:23 cases of CCCS showed bone destruction in imaging, some cases were well-circumscribed lytic lesions, some cases had sclerotic margin. The serum alkaline phosphatase was increased in 7 patients before operation. The tumor tissue was gray-white and gray-red in general and some cases showed porcelain white cartilage-like areas. Microscopically, the tumor cells are round or polygonal, some of them have clear cytoplasm and boundary, some of them are eosinophilic, some of them have round and centrally located nuclei, and mitotic image is rare. It is often seen that there are nodular distribution of cartilage-like matrix and immature woven bone, multinucleated osteoclast-like giant cell scattered in those components. Immunohistochemical staining S-100, D2-40, EMA, Vimentin, p16, SATB2 can be positive in varying degrees. The surgical treatment is mainly through en bloc excision. 10 patients had recurrence and no distant metastasis.Conclusion:CCCS is a rare subtype of chondrosarcoma, which has low-grade malignant biological behavior and is easy to be misdiagnosed clinically and pathologically. Pathological diagnosis needs to be careful. Careful observation of microscopic histology is necessary in order to avoid over-diagnosis of osteosarcoma leading to clinical treatment errors. Once the biopsy is confirmed, it needs en bloc excision in order to reduce the recurrence rate. Long-term follow-up is needed after the operation, the overall prognosis was good.