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CASE REPORT article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Imaging and Image-directed Interventions
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1407012
This article is part of the Research Topic Precision Medical Imaging for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment - Vol. II View all 35 articles

Atypical cartilaginous tumor imaging findings in the distal phalanx of the left thumb: case report and literature review

Provisionally accepted
Yujia Yang Yujia Yang *
  • West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Atypical cartilaginous tumor, usually occurs in long bones rather than the hands or feet. So far, detailed imaging features of atypical cartilaginous tumors in the hands or feet. were only reported in only a few case reports.We report a case of a early 80s Asian woman who presented to our hospital with a painless mass in the distal phalanx of the left thumb. Radiography and computed tomography (CT) showed osteolytic destruction and cortex thickening in the distal phalanx with extension into soft tissue. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a local soft tissue signal mass with iso-signal intensity in T1 and heterogeneous high-signal intensity in T2. Color Doppler ultrasound suggested that the tumor was hypovascularized. The patient underwent amputation, and histological analysis revealed an atypical cartilaginous tumor. The patient's symptoms improved postoperatively, with no recurrence as of the 3-year follow-up.Meanwhile, this study also reviewed the comparable diagnostic methods of Atypical cartilaginous tumor and chondrosarcoma. The analysis of previous similar cases showed that preoperative imaging diagnosis of ACT can be challenging and multimodal imaging appears to be beneficial in diagnosing atypical cartilaginous tumors and malignant chondrosarcoma grade II/III in the hands and feet.

    Keywords: Atypical cartilaginous tumor, Chondrosarcoma, Hands and feet, imaging, diagnosis

    Received: 26 Mar 2024; Accepted: 21 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yujia Yang, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

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