title: Prevalence of bone and soft tissue tumors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Multidisciplinary approach is a necessity for the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of bone and soft tissue tumors. The Ege University Musculoskeletal Tumor Council offers consultation services to other hospitals in the Aegean region. Since 1988 the Council has met weekly and spent approximately 1,500 hours evaluating almost 6,000 patients with suspected skeletal system tumors. Our objective was to present the data obtained from this patient group.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 5,658 patients, suspected to have a musculoskeletal tumor, were evaluated retrospectively. Multiple records of the patients due to multiple attendance to the Council were excluded. The prevalance of the bone and soft tissue tumors in these patients were analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Malignant mesenchymal tumors accounted for 39.7% of the total patients, benign tumors for 17%, tumor-like lesions for 17.8% and metastatic carsinomas for 8.6%. Malignant bone tumors were 50.2% and malignant soft tissue tumors were 49.8% of all the sarcomas. Among the malignant bone tumors the most common was osteosarcomas at a rate of 33.6%, followed by Ewing-PNET at 25.5%, chondrosarcomas at 19.4% and haematopoietic tumors at 17.6%. Pleomorphic sarcomas (24.5%), liposarcoma (16.4%), synovial sarcoma (13%) and undifferential sarcomas (8.8%) were the most common types of malignant sof tissue tumors. Benign soft tissue tumors (48%), benign cartilage tumors (28%), giant cell tumor (15%) and osteogenic tumors (9%) were found among the benign tumors. Hemangioma, lipoma, agressive fibromatosis, enchondroma, solitary chondroma and osteoid osteoma were the most common tumors in their groups. Lung (27%), breast (24%), gastrointestinal system (10.5%) and kidney (8.2%) carcinomas were the most common primary sites of the bone metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Turkey still lacks a comprehensive series indicating the incidence and diagnostic distribution of bone and soft tissue tumors. The presented data would add to our knowledge on the specific rates of the bone and soft tissue tumors in Aegean region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Medical Faculty of Ege University, İzmir, Turkey. guventuceturk@ttmail.com
authors.forename: Güven
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yücetürk
authors.forename: Dündar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sabah
authors.forename: Burçin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keçeci
authors.forename: Ahmet Duran
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Kara
authors.forename: Selçuk
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yalçinkaya
mesh_terms: D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008501:Medical Records, Problem-Oriented / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009141:Musculoskeletal System / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology