IS THERE AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TRAUMA AND MUSCULOSKELETAL TUMORS? A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.

There is a relatively high incidence of patients recalling an injury before the appearance of a musculoskeletal mass especially in hand and upper limb. Despite the number of such cases, no clear pathogenetic mechanism has been found yet to certify triggering role of tissue injury in tumor development. A tumor may pre-exist before the injury, or it may have grown coincidently after trauma and documentation lacks in most cases. It is interesting to investigate if there is a connection and whether tissue trauma can provoke tumor genesis indeed, or it just accelerates tumor growth and the relative pathophysiological mechanism.