Distribution and evaluation of bone and soft tissue tumors in the middle Black Sea Region

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of bone and soft tissue tumors operated on at the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology at Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between January 1987 and January 2012. Methods: This descriptive study retrospectively evaluated 1,925 patients hospitalized with a preliminary diagnosis of tumor. Patients were analyzed for age, gender, tumor incidence and localization. Three hundred and forty-nine patients found to have non-tumor causes. The 94 patients discharged at their own request or deceased during follow-up were not included in the tumor group. Results: Of the 1,482 (76.9%) patients diagnosed with tumor, 687 (46.4%) were bone tumors, 586 (39.5%) soft tissue tumors and 209 (14.1%) metastatic tumors. The most common benign bone tumor was osteochondroma (118; 25%), followed by enchondroma (68; 14.4%) and giant cell tumor (59; 12.5%), and the most common malignant bone tumor was osteosarcoma (58; 27%), followed by chondrosarcoma (36; 16.7%) and Ewing’s sarcoma (33; 15.3%). The most common benign soft tissue tumor was cystic hygroma (96; 22%), followed by lipoma (75; 17.2%) and hemangioma (52; 11.9%), and the most common malignant soft tissue tumors were pleomorphic cell tumor (29; 19.3%) and liposarcoma (29; 19.3%), followed by pleomorphic undifferentiated sarcoma (21; 14%). Seventy (33.5%) of the metastatic tumors were of pulmonary origin, 36 (17.2%) were of breast origin and the primary site of the tumor was not clearly determined in 58 (27.8%) patients. Conclusion: The distribution of bone and soft tissue tumors appear to have certain characteristics but can show regional differences. We believe that the establishment of a larger series through the collection of these types of studies from centers in which bone and soft tissue tumor surgery is performed will provide important information on the epidemiological features of bone and soft tissue tumors.