Epidemiology and Chemosensitivity of Primary Malignant Bone Tumors at a Teaching Hospital in South Africa: A 5-Year Retrospective Analysis

Introduction

Primary malignant bone tumors (PMBTs) are rare worldwide, accounting for between 0.2% and 0.5% of all malignancies [1–4]. In a global study by Kumar and Gupta, PMBTs had a variable geographical incidence [2]. The latter suggests that the environment plays a role in health and tumor dynamics, in particular. Similarly, patient age and sex seem to play a role in the incidence of PMBT, especially in childhood [2,3,6]. In some studies, young and teenage boys during growth spurts are more likely to develop primary malignant bone tumors, with a male-to-female ratio of 2: 1 [2,3,6,7].

In our local South African orthopedic context, Pillay et al found osteosarcoma to be the most common PMBT treated at their university hospital [4]. They postulated socio-economic and/or environmental factors to be involved in the development of osteosarcoma [4]. However, they did not look at the environment as a risk factor in terms of the exposure to and role of agricultural pesticides and their association with PMBT. Other risk factors previously highlighted in the literature that are somewhat linked to geographical and environmental exposure are vitamin D deficiency and exposure to ionizing radiation [2,8]. In the pediatric population, osteosarcoma is the most common PMBT, followed by Ewing sarcoma, with the latter showing a predilection for children of Caucasian descent [1–4,7,8]. In a study by Ramdass et al, race was seen as a stronger risk factor for PMBT in mixed-race communities, as PMBTs had a racial predilection even for children living within the same island community [3]. In the adult population, chondrosarcoma is consistently the most common PMBT reported [2–4,8]. However, fibrosarcoma was found to be more common than chondrosarcoma in a study done by Ode et al in Nigeria on adult patients, further highlighting the influence that environmental factors have on PMBT development [8].

Osteosarcoma outcomes are well researched in the literature, with obvious improvement in overall survival and surgical outcomes over the past 3 decades [5,6,9]. Novel chemotherapy protocol success led to the possibility of limb salvage treatment algorithms [6]. Before this milestone, patients were destined for limb ablation surgery after diagnosis. Treatment reviews from developed countries are reporting a >60% treatment success rate, with survival rates of up to 82% at 5 years for chemotherapy-sensitive osteosarcoma [9]. The latter 2 figures have improved significantly from figures reported in the 1960s and 1970s [9]. Ewing sarcoma management protocols closely resemble and adapt, to an extent, from osteosarcoma management and overall outcomes, with poorer surgical outcomes and a 5-year survival rate of around 40% for both [10]. With chondrosarcoma, sensitivity to chemotherapy is generally poor; however, success rate and 5-year survival rates are reported around 75% after surgical resection and radiotherapy [11]. Multiple myeloma (MM) treatment success rates are better in young healthy individuals (<65 years) than in elderly patients with comorbidities [12]. Bone marrow ablation with autologous stem cell transplant remains the criterion standard in the former group of patients [12]. Unfortunately, Pillay et al, in their study, did not classify MM as a PMBT and rather they considered MM a hematological malignancy [4]. However, the WHO classification (2020) of tumors of the bone classifies plasmacytomas and MM as hemopoietic tumors of bone [13]. MM is defined as a primary malignant bone tumor in our study, together with other tumors that were analyzed. To a lesser extent, institutional variability in the definitions of PMBTs can also add to the role played by the environment when reporting on the epidemiology of PMBTs. To the best of our knowledge at the time of this study, PMBTs have not been studied locally concerning their geographical variation and their association with agricultural pesticides. Therefore, our study aimed to retrospectively study children and adults treated for PMBTs at our center between 2016 and 2021.

Material and Methods

INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Records of all pediatric and adult patients with a diagnosis of PMBTs during the study period were included in the study. We excluded all records for patients treated for secondary malignant bone, as well as those with primary soft tissue and secondary bone tumors. Records with inadequate and inconclusive histological results were also excluded.

DATA ANALYSIS:

Microsoft Excel and Stata 18.0 software were used for descriptive statistical analysis.

Results

CLINICAL PRESENTATION:

Pain was the most common symptom, presenting either in isolation or in combination with the development of a mass and/or a pathological fracture. Pain was reported in 93% (114/123) of patients. The development of a mass was reported in 64% (79/123) cases, while a fracture was diagnosed in 17% (21/123) cases only.

BODY PART AFFECTED:

The lower limb bones were affected 3: 1 to the upper limb bones. A total of 99 lower limb bones were affected, and 33 upper limb bones were affected in our cohort. One case was recorded as unknown for the body part. There was a slight predilection for the right-hand side of the body, with 54% (71 out of 131 bones) of tumors affecting the right-hand side.

TUMOR DIAGNOSIS:

Osteosarcoma was the most common PMBT diagnosis, accounting for 57.7% of all tumors. MM was the second most common, with 24.3% of patients having this tumor. The least common tumor in our cohort was synovial sarcoma, affecting only 1 patient. Table 1 depicts the PMBT by frequency.

CHEMOTHERAPY RESPONSE:

Table 2 summarizes our findings on chemotherapy response. Twenty-one percent of all tumor types were classified as unknown (response not assessable). Ewing sarcoma had a 75% sensitivity rate, while all the others had poor sensitivity to chemotherapy.

SURGICAL OUTCOMES:

Thirty-six percent of our participants received non-operative care, with the remaining undergoing definitive surgical intervention. Figures 4–7 show the categories and subcategories under both groups of intervention. At assessment, 54.7% of patients were deemed for palliative care, with patients receiving non-operative treatment or palliative amputation of a limb.

Discussion

PMBTs are rare and show a variable geographical incidence in each unique environment [1–5,8]. An association between agricultural pesticides and PMBTs has not been researched in our context. Agricultural pesticides have been shown to have a weak association with development of soft tissue tumors [14]. Freeman et al reported no association observed between lymphoma of bone, MM, and pesticide exposure [15]. In the present study, only 1 patient had prior knowledge of exposure to pesticides; therefore, we could not retrospectively establish any association between PMBTs and pesticide exposure in our cohort of patients.

Osteosarcoma was by far the most common PMBT in our cohort. The literature consistently reports osteosarcoma as the most common PMBT [1–5,8,16,17]. MM was the second most common PMBT in our cohort and in another African study by Sakala et al [16]. We defined and included MM as a PMBT in our study. Based on our definition, MM was the most common PMBT in our older population group. Pillay et al and Palmerini et al excluded MM in reports, suggesting they defined MM as a hematological malignancy [4,18]. Ewing sarcoma, although rare in Africans, was the second most common PMBT in our pediatric population group; however, it accounted for only 4 cases. Sofulu et al had 30 cases of Ewing sarcoma over 8 years [19]. The lower rates of Ewing sarcoma reported in Africa could be due to the lack of Musculoskeletal Tumor Registry data on the continent and the predominant dedication of resources for osteosarcoma care [1–5,7,8]. Primary chondrosarcoma was the second most common PMBT in the adult population in our study and in a meta-analysis on bone tumors in Nigeria by Koyejo et al [20]. However, chondrosarcoma typically ranks as the second most common PMBT in adulthood, typically when MM is defined as a PMBT, and the most common PMBT in adults when MM is considered a hematological malignancy [17,18]. Deka et al included metastatic bone disease in their review of malignant bone tumors, and chondrosarcoma was the third most common PMBT after metastatic bone disease and osteosarcoma. Surprisingly, MM was the fourth most common PMBT in that study. The latter highlights the role and effect that definitions and geography/environment have on the epidemiological picture of PMBTs.

Pain was the most reported symptom either in isolation or in combination with a mass or pathological fracture in our cohort. Pain was reported commonly in our patients, probably due to presentation with large tumor sizes and associated pathological fractures. The appearance of a swelling (mass) was the second most common symptom, and a pathological fracture was the least common symptom in isolation. Oyedemade et al found results similar to those in our study, with 85% of their patients presenting with a painful mass, while only 16.5% had a pathological fracture at presentation. However, Lingerih et al, in their study in Ethiopia, found a mass/swelling to be the most frequent symptom, followed by pain [21]. In another study by Sakala et al, pain as a standalone symptom accounted for 27% of symptoms at presentation. Swelling alone was noted in 17% of cases, and pathological fracture was noted in 20% of cases, although it was always associated with pain and/or swelling [16]. The variation in presentation findings is likely due to a difference in time to presentation by patients as well as variation in study population demographics and the variable tumor diagnoses unique to each community. Additionally, Papagelopoulos et al showed that tumor diagnosis and the anatomical location affected by the tumor influenced pathological fracture development [22].

Numerous factors influence a tumor’s chemotherapy response evaluation. Our cohort of PMBTs was documented to be chemosensitive in 33% of cases. Chemoresistance was noted in 45% of that cases. The latter, together with patients who discontinued and those with no documented response, accounted for a substantial proportion of our cohort. This poor response was also likely related to the late time of presentation seen in our patient population. Equally, large tumors are prone to requiring emergency surgery, disrupting the chemotherapy treatment protocols before chemosensitivity assessment is possible. Late presentation and larger tumor size have been associated with a poor chemotherapy response, especially for osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma, with a tumor size >10 cm being a predictor of poor response and, therefore, outcomes [6,19,23]. Our patients with osteosarcoma were sensitive to chemotherapy in 38% of cases, a low figure as compared with the 70% chemosensitivity in the literature [24]. However, a dedifferentiation percentage >20% in chondrosarcoma is more predictive of chemotherapy response than tumor size [25]. Notwithstanding that, chondrosarcoma generally has a poor response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with both modalities reserved mainly for palliation [11,26,27]. Effectively, only Ewing sarcoma was sensitive to chemotherapy, in keeping with the literature [6,9,10]. All other PMBTs in our study had a poor response to chemotherapy.

Our mortality rate, when considering the number of discontinued and unknown participants, respectively, was “functionally” 37% (45/123) at data collection, with a 5-year survival of 63%. Sofulu et al also had an overall 5-year survival of 57%, while Wang et al reported a 77% 5-year survival rate [19,28]. The latter figures are in keeping with our findings on the cohort. Lisenda et al also reported a 20% absconding rate in their study, although with patients with osteosarcoma [29]. Irresectable pulmonary metastasis at presentation is a poor predictor of outcomes in osteosarcoma [27]. No study evaluated the combined mortality of all PMBTs locally. The latter may be due to poor infrastructure, the recent expansion of orthopedic oncology services and, more importantly, a lack of established registry databases for PMBTs in our context. Our study was limited by poor medical records, which is typical of retrospective studies in our context. The years 2020 and 2021 affected by COVID-19 restrictions may have influenced our findings, as services were halted. A longer follow-up study period or a controlled prospective study could yield different results.

Conclusions

PMBTs are rare. The most common PMBT at our hospital is osteosarcoma. There were variations in the incidence of the other PMBTs, compared with those in the literature. We had a poor patient chemotherapy response for most PMBTs, due to death, discontinuation, and late presentation by patients. The majority of our patients had no knowledge of prior exposure to agricultural pesticides.