This is a retrospective study of 70 patients with chondroblastoma treated between 1973 to 2000. Of these 70 patients, 53 had their primary procedure performed at our unit in the form of an intralesional curettage. The purpose of this study was to determine the rates of recurrence and the functional outcomes following this technique. Factors associated with aggressive tumour behaviour were also analysed. The patients were followed up for at least 22 months, up to a maximum of 27 years. 6 out of these 53 cases (11. 3%) had a histologically proven local recurrence. Three patients underwent a second intralesional curettage procedure and had no further recurrences. Two patients had endoprosthetic replacement of the proximal humerus and one patient underwent a below knee amputation following aggressive local recurrences. One patient had the rare malignant metastatic chondroblastoma and died eventually. The mean MSTS score was 94. 1%. We conclude that meticulous primary intralesional curettage without any additional procedure can achieve low rates of local recurrence and excellent long-term functional results.

We studied 55 patients with stage-IIB osteosarcoma around the knee with respect to the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 in the surviving tumour cells in surgical resection specimens. They were followed up for a minimum of 2.5 years.

Factors significantly associated with poor overall survival were a high serum level of alkaline phosphatase at diagnosis and tumour cells expressing MMP-9 in the resection specimens. The only factor strongly associated with disease-free survival was the immunohistochemical status of tumour cells for MMP-9 in the resection specimens. The percentage of necrosis after chemotherapy failed marginally to reach statistical significance. On Cox regression analysis only MMP-9 remained significant for overall and disease-free survival.