Bone & joints
Other tumors
Giant cell granuloma
Author: Nat Pernick, M.D.
Topic Completed: 1 June 2005
Minor changes: 30 December 2020
Copyright: 2003-2021, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed search: giant cell granuloma [title] bone
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Radiology images | Case reports | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Positive stains | Additional referencesCite this page: Pernick N. Giant cell granuloma. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/bonegiantcellreparative.html. Accessed March 4th, 2021.
Definition / general
- Formerly called giant cell reparative granuloma
- Giant cell lesion primarily of jaw, also other craniofacial bones and short tubular bones of hands and feet
- May be response to injury but some cases behave aggressively
- Giant cells have features of macrophages and osteoclasts; mononuclear cells appear to be proliferative, not giant cells
Radiology images
AFIP images
Metatarsal
Contributed by Dr. Mark R. Wick
Cherubism
Foot Xray
Jaw Xray
Peripheral type, distal tibia
Case reports
- 32 year old man with giant cell granuloma of the temporal bone (Arch Pathol Lab Med 2003;127:1217)
Gross description
- Unencapsulated, brittle, brown purple, granulation tissue mass
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Fibrillar connective tissue stroma with small oval and spindly mononuclear cells mixed with uneven clusters of multinuclear (5 - 40) giant cells
- Small capillaries, hemorrhage, hemosiderin, reactive bone with osteoblastic rimming
- No pleomorphism, no / rare mitotic figures
Microscopic (histologic) images
AFIP images
Background is fibrous stroma
Giant cells present in granuloma-like aggregates
Contributed by Dr. Mark R. Wick
Cherubism
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Positive stains
- Giant cells - CD68, tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), patchy macrophage markers
- Mononuclear cells - Ki67, TRAP
Additional references
