CLINICAL AND IMAGING FEATURES OF MALIGNANT AND BENIGN BONE NEOPLASMS IN CHILDREN

Objective: to describe clinical and imaging differences between malignant and benign bone neoplasms in children and adolescents. We analyzed data from 208 patients, including 137 with malignant and 71 with benign lesions. Tumor size, location, growth pattern, margins, bone destruction, periosteal reaction, soft-tissue component, Doppler vascularity, edema, marrow involvement, and metastases were compared descriptively. Lesions larger than 100 mm, mixed growth, irregular margins, soft-tissue extension, high vascularity, and aggressive periosteal patterns were more frequent in the malignant group. These descriptive findings support integrated interpretation and do not validate any single imaging feature as a diagnostic test. Different denominators and the lack of individual-level data limited diagnostic accuracy calculations.