Cytologic Diagnosis of Chondrosarcoma on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology: A Challenge.

ABSTRACT

Chondrosarcoma is a malignant tumour of cartilage,usually named and classified by anatomic location.Primary chondrosarcoma is the third most commonprimary tumour of bone, after myeloma andosteosarcoma. Commonest sites of presentation arepelvic bones, long bones and relatively rare in ribs. Herewe report a case of 75 year old male who presented witha swelling over the left lower lumbar region, whichincreased gradually in size in three months. Theswelling was not associated with pain or trauma. Afterinitial clinical workup, he was referred to the RadiologyDepartment, for Computerized Tomography (CT) scan.On correlating the findings in the CTscan report, he wasfurther referred to the Histopathology Department forFine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in view ofdefinite diagnosis. Initial diagnosis on FNAC was givenas chondrosarcoma in favour of the location of theswelling. Furthermore excision biopsy was done. Thedefinitive diagnosis was given as dedifferentiatedchondrosarcoma. FNAC of dedifferentiated lesions dueto its rarity and limited experience poses a challenge tomany histopathologists.