[Secondary chondrosarcoma: radiopathological correlation]

Abstract

Chondrosarcomas are malignant bone tumors originating in cartilage. Chondrosarcoma is the third most common malignant bone tumor after multiple myeloma and osteosarcoma. About 75% of chondrosarcomas are primary lesions. The remaining 25% belong to special categories such as histologic variants and secondary forms. A secondary chondrosarcoma is one that appears in a pre-existing benign chondral lesion; the different types of secondary chondrosarcomas include solitary osteochondroma, multiple osteochondromatosis, enchondroma, the different types of enchondromatosis, and primary synovial chondromatosis. The incidence of this malignant transformation varies widely in function of the type of lesion. In this article, we discuss and illustrate the different types of secondary chondrosarcomas, placing special emphasis on the imaging findings that should alert to these lesions and give radiologists a key role in the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of these patients.

Keywords: Chondromatosis; Chondrosarcoma; Condroma; Condromatosis; Condrosarcoma; Enchondroma; Magnetic resonance imaging; Multidetector computed tomography; Osteochondroma; Osteocondroma; Resonancia magnética; Tomografía computarizada multidetector.