From bimodal to unimodal: The transformed incidence of osteosarcoma in the United States

Background

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy. It has classically been described as having a bimodal incidence by age. We sought to identify whether the bimodal incidence distribution still exists for osteosarcoma using the SEER and NIS databases.

Methods

Incidence rates of primary osteosarcoma between 2000–2021 were analyzed by age at diagnosis, year of occurrence, sex, and tumor site from the SEER Research Data, 17 Registries, Nov 2023 Sub (2000–2021). The incidence of cases in 35–64 year-olds and 65 and above was compared statistically to determine if there is an increased incidence in the later ages. Incidence of tumors of the long bones of the lower limbs from the NIS discharge database 2012–2019 was also analyzed for comparison.

Results

Overall, 5,129 cases of osteosarcoma were reported in the SEER database. Across the 22 calendar year span, a consistent first peak appeared in the second decade of life. There was no consistent second peak in the 35+ age group. There were 86,100 discharges with long bone tumors analyzed in the NIS data which exhibited nearly identical patterns.

Conclusions

Our analysis shows that the incidence of osteosarcoma is no longer bimodally distributed but rather unimodally distributed.