Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2012
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Case Reports in Medicine
DOI of Original Publication
10.1155/2012/850509
Date of Submission
August 2014
Abstract
Introduction. Giant cell tumor of the bone is a rare benign lesion that infrequently affects the ribs, and if present, is usually located posteriorly. The rarity of this tumor poses diagnostic and therapeutic problems for physicians, especially when it is located in the anterior arc of the rib in close proximity to the breasts in female patients. Case Presentation. We report the case of a 32-year-old Asian female with a giant cell tumor of her anterior rib, presenting as a large inframammary mass. Computed tomography showed a tumor arising from the 7th rib anteriorly with marginal sclerosis, cortical destruction, and a soft tissue mass. She was treated with surgical resection, and the defect was reconstructed primarily. The surgical specimen measured 28.0 × 24.0 cm. The microscopic examination showed a large number of multinucleate giant cells scattered over the parenchyma. Patient recovered uneventfully and continues to be recurrence-free six years after surgical resection. Conclusion. We report the largest known case of giant cell tumor arising from the anterior aspect of a rib. We recommend including giant cell tumor in the differential diagnosis of chest wall masses especially in female patients, regardless of the size on clinical examination.
Rights
Received 9 July 2012; Accepted 8 November 2012 Academic Editor: Jeffrey C. Wang Copyright © 2012 Amit Sharma and Amy E. Armstrong. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Is Part Of
VCU Surgery Publications
Comments
Originally published by http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/850509