Metastatic Bone Disease as Seen in Our Clinical Practice - Experience at a Tertiary Care Cancer Center in Pakistan

Aim: Metastatic tumor of bone is the most common malignancy involving bone and is an important predictor of prognosis in advanced cancers. The prognosis depends upon the primary site of origin and the extent of disease. In current study, we present the pattern and distribution of metastatic bone disease seen in the leading cancer care center of Pakistan, Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital & Research Center (SKMCH & RC), Lahore. Materials & Methods: All cases of bony metastatic disease were included that presented in the Pathology Department, from Jan 2005 to July 2011. Patients of all ages and both sexes were included. Primary bone tumors, lymphomas, sarcomas and other malignancies were excluded. The data were recorded and analyzed with SPSS 16.0. Results: A total of 146 cases of metastatic bone disease were included in the study. Out of the total cases, 79 were male and 67 were female. Age range 25-82 years (median 52). Hip bone was the most frequent bone involved, with femur and vertebrae as second and third in the list. The commonest bone involved in males was vertebrae with 23 cases and in females was hip bone with 22 cases. Regarding primary site, cancers of breast, prostate and gastrointestinal tract were at the top of the list with prostate and breast being the most frequent primary sites of metastasis in males and females respectively. Conclusion: Bone metastasis is an important entity to consider in the differential diagnosis whenever a bony tumor especially carcinoma present in older age. Our data are comparable with international findings and the literature available regarding the site and distribution of skeletal metastatic lesions. A slight deviation noted was more common bony metastatic lesions with ovarian primaries in females and gastrointestinal tract cancers in males in our study.