We retrospectively reviewed the records of 125 patients with
chondrosarcoma seen at the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli. All of the patients
had been followed for at least five years, and ninety-six patients had been
followed for at least ten years. The requirements for the adequacy of
treatment were carefully defined. Metastasis and survival were related to
the histological grade of the tumor. Nine per cent of the grade-1 lesions
and 44 per cent of the grade-3 lesions metastasized. Ninety-four per cent
of the patients with grade-1 lesions survived for five years, compared with
only 44 per cent of patients with grade-3 lesions. The ten-year survival
rates were 87 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively. Adequacy of treatment
had an important influence on the incidence of recurrence, length of
survival, and length of disease-free survival. The incidence of recurrence
in adequately treated patients was 6 per cent, but in inadequately treated
patients it was 69 per cent. The five-year survival rates in these two
groups were 81 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively. Seventy-eight per
cent of the adequately treated patients were disease-free at follow-up
(mean, 11.1 years) compared with only 6 per cent of the inadequately
treated patients. We compared the results of this review with those of
other reviews of chondrosarcoma.