WHO classification of tumours of bone

Last revised by Arlene Campos on 3 Jul 2024

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Deng F, Campos A, Yap J, et al. WHO classification of tumours of bone. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 10 Aug 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-73979

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-73979

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/73979?iframe=true

rID:

73979

Article created:

30 Jan 2020, Francis Deng ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Francis Deng had no recorded disclosures.

View Francis Deng's current disclosures

Last revised:

3 Jul 2024, Arlene Campos ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Arlene Campos had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Arlene Campos's current disclosures

Revisions:

11 times, by 8 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Musculoskeletal, Oncology

Sections:

Classifications

Synonyms:

Bone tumors (WHO classification)
WHO classification of bone tumors
Bone tumours (WHO classification)
WHO classification of bone tumours

The World Health Organisation (WHO) classification of bone tumours is the most widely used pathologic classification system for such disorders. The revision, part of the 5^th edition of the WHO series, was published in 2020 and is reflected in the article below ¹.

osteochondroma
periosteal chondroma
enchondroma
chondromyxoid fibroma
osteochondromyxoma
subungual exostosis
bizarre parosteal osteochondromatous proliferation
synovial chondromatosis
chondroblastoma
central atypical cartilaginous tumour / chondrosarcoma (grade 1)
secondary peripheral atypical cartilaginous tumour / chondrosarcoma (grade 1)
central chondrosarcoma (grades 2-3)
secondary chondrosarcoma (grade 2-3)
periosteal chondrosarcoma
dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma
mesenchymal chondrosarcoma
clear cell chondrosarcoma

Osteogenic tumours

osteoma
osteoid osteoma
osteoblastoma
low-grade central osteosarcoma
osteosarcoma
- conventional osteosarcoma
- telangiectatic osteosarcoma
- small cell osteosacroma
parosteal osteosarcoma
periosteal osteosarcoma
high-grade surface osteosarcoma
secondary osteosarcoma

Fibrogenic tumours

Vascular tumours

Osteoclastic giant cell-rich tumours

Notochordal tumours

Other mesenchymal tumours of bone

Haematopoietic neoplasms

Changes from the prior version

Entities and variants

Entities include the following ¹:

chondrogenic tumours
- secondary peripheral atypical cartilaginous tumour / chondrosarcoma (grade 1)
- secondary chondrosarcoma (grade 2-3)
osteogenic tumours
- secondary osteosarcoma
notochordal tumours
- dedifferentiated chordoma
- poorly differentiated chordoma
other mesenchymal tumours of bone
- fibrocartilaginous mesenchymoma
- bone metastases

Other changes

Ewing sarcoma has been moved to a whole different chapter together with several other entities of undifferentiated small round cell sarcomas of soft tissue and bone
clearer differentiation of central and secondary peripheral chondrosarcoma variants:
- central atypical cartilaginous tumour / chondrosarcoma (grade 1)
- secondary peripheral atypical cartilaginous tumour / chondrosarcoma (grade 1)
- central chondrosarcoma (grades 2-3)
- secondary chondrosarcoma (grade 2-3)
non-ossifying fibroma and aneurysmal bone cyst have been classified as osteoclastic giant cell-rich tumours
Langerhans cell histiocytosis, Erdheim-Chester disease and Rosai-Dorfman disease have been classified as haematopoietic neoplasms of bone
myogenic, lipogenic, epithelial tumours and tumours of undefined neoplastic nature have been classified as other mesenchymal tumours of bone which also includes undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma
giant cell lesion of the small bones has been removed as a separate entity

References

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bone","isStack":false,"diagnosticCertainty":null,"thumbnail":"https://prod-images-static.radiopaedia.org/images/8713585/f9d418940e3d845818cb12eb69095a_big_gallery.jpg"},{"imageId":156819,"studyId":8898,"caseSlug":"langerhans-cell-histiocytosis-4","caption":"Case 29: Langerhans cell histiocytosis","isStack":false,"diagnosticCertainty":"confirmed_substantiated","thumbnail":"https://prod-images-static.radiopaedia.org/images/156819/9f85f981e10c82e247dbe66dbfd8af99bb2f3fccfd33361f3b181bbf14be6264_big_gallery.jpeg"},{"imageId":409440,"studyId":10034,"caseSlug":"erdheim-chester-disease-with-skeletal-and-lung-involvement-1","caption":"Case 30: Erdheim-Chester disease","isStack":false,"diagnosticCertainty":"confirmed_unsubstantiated","thumbnail":"https://prod-images-static.radiopaedia.org/images/409440/6ff460d6e15c55e37189efff34714f_big_gallery.jpg"}],"ddx_inclusions":[],"lang":"gb"}