A case of long term survival with skeletal only metastatic breast cancer.

Introduction: The prognosis of patients with metastatic breast cancer is very poor. Because of this, treatment of skeletal metastasis is often palliative with limited goals rather than cure. However, there are those patients, such as presented here, who survive for an extended time.

Spread of squamous cell carcinoma from the thumb to the small finger via the flexor tendon sheaths.

We report the development of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma at the tip of the small finger following the development of a thumb distal phalanx squamous cell carcinoma caused by chronic osteomyelitis. The spread of hand infections from the flexor tendons of the thumb to the small finger through a tendon sheath connection at the wrist is a well-described phenomenon. The evidence from this case suggests that the spread of the squamous cell carcinoma from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the small finger occurred in a similar fashion.

Case reports: Osteogenic sarcoma of the patella spread to lateral meniscus after arthroscopy.

Our patient presented with a rare lesion, a patella osteogenic sarcoma that spread to the anterior horn of the lateral meniscus via the arthroscope. He was treated arthroscopically for a torn medial meniscus of his right knee. A lesion in the patella was observed and a biopsy specimen was obtained through the arthroscope.

Pioneers in musculoskeletal oncology: Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Founders Lecture.

I was invited to deliver the third annual Musculoskeletal Tumor Society's Founder's Lecture, at our annual meeting on May 2, 2003 in Chicago, IL. The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society began in 1977 when a small group of physicians, mainly orthopaedic surgeons, met to discuss ways of improving the outcome of the rare and usually fatal primary malignant neoplasms of bone. Treatment of patients with these types of cancers most often was amputation.

Osteonecrosis after powered core decompression.

A 44-year-old man with alcohol-related osteonecrosis of his left femoral head, Ficat Stage 2, was treated by femoral head decompression. During this procedure the (1/4)-inch trephine driven by a power reamer became lodged in the femoral head and became hot to the touch. The trephine eventually was removed with difficulty after the decompression was completed.