ABSTRACT
Primary malignant bone tumours are rare and account for less than 1% of all deaths from malignant disease. Accurate estimates of their incidence are difficult to collect but it appears that there are no more than 350 new cases per year in the United Kingdom. The approximate incidence of the commonest bone tumours is osteosarcoma: 3/million/year, chondrosarcoma 1.5/million/year, Ewing’s sarcoma 1/million/year and malignant fibrous histicytoma 0.5/million/year. Metastatic disease therefore remains by far the commonest malignant process to be found in bone.
