Morphological diagnosis of chondroid tumors of skull bones: аctual situation

Abstract

Cranial chondroid tumors are a large group of benign and malignant neoplasms. The histological diagnosis plays a crucial role for treatment of patients with this pathology, especially, for cases of tumors with uncertain malignancy such as atypical cartilaginous tumor / chondrosarcoma grade I. There is no description of a unified concept of morphological diagnosis of atypical cartilaginous tumor / chondrosarcoma grade I with cranial localization in the current medical literature today. In this article we tried to reflect the actual state of the problem and emphasize the relevance of standardization of criteria for the histological assessment of cranial chondroid tumors.

Diagnostics of IDH1/2 Mutations in Intracranial Chondroid Tumors: Comparison of Molecular Genetic Methods and Immunohistochemistry

“…Clinically, radiologically, and pathomorphologically, chondrosarcoma overlaps with another malignant neoplasm, chordoma, and the differential diagnosis between these tumors presents a major diagnostic challenge [28,35]. Chordomas arise from embryonic remnants of primitive notochord, while chondrosarcomas arise from primitive mesenchymal cells or from the embryonic remnant of the cartilaginous matrix of the skull [36].…”

“…Finally, we collected samples from 96 patients with ICHTs (96 surgical resections) ranging in age from 2 to 74 years (mean age 39.6 years), 29 males and 67 females. The diagnostic criteria based on morphological, radiological, and histological data, were applied as described earlier [28]. The diagnoses between the 96 cases were categorized as follows: chondrosarcoma (n = 64), chordoma (n = 15), osteosarcoma (n = 7), chondroma (n = 6), and chondromyxoid fibroma (n = 4).…”