# Adamantinoma of bone

Source: https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/  
OnCo record `adamantinoma` (Cancer). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Adamantinoma is a very rare, slow-growing bone cancer of young adults that almost always affects the shin bone, made of epithelial cells inside fibrous bone, and listed with the bone sarcomas in the WHO classification. It is cured by cutting it out with a margin; chemotherapy and radiotherapy do not work, and a minority spread to the lungs many years later.

## Summary

Adamantinoma is a low-grade malignant biphasic bone tumour of epithelial cells in an osteofibrous stroma, classified with the bone tumours of uncertain differentiation in the WHO soft tissue and bone classification; the classic form is distinguished from osteofibrous dysplasia-like (differentiated) adamantinoma, which occurs in children and rarely metastasises (Orthopedics 2007). In 46 consecutive patients followed for a mean of 16 years, the tibia was the commonest site (31), patients presented with pain and swelling at a mean age of 24, 37 had limb-salvage surgery, 39 percent needed reoperation, and ten-year disease-specific and recurrence-free survival were 92 and 72 percent, with three recurrences more than 15 years after treatment (Journal of Surgical Oncology 2018).

How it differs from its parent: the sarcoma page covers the mesenchymal cancers of bone and soft tissue; adamantinoma is epithelial in lineage, indolent, radiologically distinctive (a multilocular lytic lesion of the anterior tibial cortex) and insensitive to the chemotherapy used for osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma.

How common: no registry figure; under 1 percent of primary bone tumours in the older literature the review cites (Orthopedics 2007).

Treatment: wide en bloc resection with reconstruction, or amputation where resection is impossible; no role for chemotherapy or radiotherapy; lifelong follow-up because recurrence and lung metastasis can occur decades later (Journal of Surgical Oncology 2018; Orthopedics 2007).

## Fields

- Kind: Cancer
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: Adamantinoma of the long bones; Adamantinoma of the tibia; Osteofibrous dysplasia-like adamantinoma
- Tags: subtype-page; wave4; rare
- Group: sarcoma
- Burden: Very rare: a single institution saw 46 histologically confirmed cases between 1939 and 2012, 31 of them in the tibia, mean age 24 (Journal of Surgical Oncology 2018). No registry figure exists.
- Subtypes: Classic adamantinoma of the long bones (tibia; young adults); Osteofibrous dysplasia-like (differentiated) adamantinoma of bone (children; rarely metastatic); Dedifferentiated adamantinoma (very rare)
- Biomarkers: Cytokeratin-positive epithelial nests in fibro-osseous stroma; Anterior tibial cortical location on imaging; Margin status after resection

## Sections of this record

The page is a hub with ten sections in reading order; large sections have their own page. The same plan as JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/cancers/adamantinoma/sections.json

- Overview (on the hub): The TL;DR, the family this cancer belongs to, the organ, who gets it and what the state of the art is. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#overview
- What it is (on the hub): Anatomy, the subtypes and how they differ, how it is staged, and where advanced disease spreads. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#what-it-is [3 subtypes]
- Finding it (on the hub): How it shows itself, how it is confirmed, what screening exists, and the biomarkers clinicians test for. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#finding-it [3 biomarkers]
- Treating it (on the hub): The standard of care by setting, the medicines, surgery and radiotherapy named in it, and the regimens behind them. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#treating-it [1 setting]
- Evidence (on the hub): Trials recruiting now, the landmark trials, the key papers and what they mean, the latest literature, and the milestones year by year. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#evidence
- The science (on the hub): The molecular landscape: the targets and how often each appears, the pathways, the mechanics stages and the preclinical models. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#science
- Where you are (own page): Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, and the expert centres with trials on record. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/where-you-are/
- Living with it (on the hub): The decisions you may face, the aids that walk through them, the warnings on record, the first sixty days and the questions to ask. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/#living-with-it [7 questions]
- What is coming (own page): Everything in development, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/coming/
- Data (own page): Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked. https://onco.cc/cancers/adamantinoma/data/

## Standard of care

- All cases: Wide en bloc resection with reconstruction; no chemotherapy or radiotherapy; decades of follow-up for late recurrence and lung metastasis. ([Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)](https://onco.cc/cancers/sarcoma/))

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantinoma
- NCI PDQ: rare cancers of childhood: https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/patient/rare-childhood-cancers-pdq
- Journal of Surgical Oncology 2018: adamantinoma of bone, long-term follow-up of 46 consecutive patients: https://doi.org/10.1002/jso.25269
- Orthopedics 2007: clinicopathological features, diagnosis and treatment of adamantinoma of the long bones: https://doi.org/10.3928/01477447-20070301-04

## Connected records

- cancers: [Chordoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/chordoma/), [Conjunctival melanoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/conjunctival-melanoma/), [Desmoplastic small round cell tumour](https://onco.cc/cancers/desmoplastic-small-round-cell-tumour/), [Ewing sarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/ewing-sarcoma/), [Optic pathway glioma](https://onco.cc/cancers/optic-pathway-glioma/), [Osteosarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/osteosarcoma/), [Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)](https://onco.cc/cancers/sarcoma/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/adamantinoma.json