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 predictorof 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 carecenter 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 maleand 67 were female. Age range 25-82 years (median 52). Hip bone was the most frequent bone involved, withfemur and vertebrae as second and third in the list. The commonest bone involved in males was vertebrae with23 cases and in females was hip bone with 22 cases. Regarding primary site, cancers of breast, prostate andgastrointestinal tract were at the top of the list with prostate and breast being the most frequent primary sitesof metastasis in males and females respectively.
Conclusion: Bone metastasis is an important entity to considerin the differential diagnosis whenever a bony tumor especially carcinoma present in older age. Our data arecomparable with international findings and the literature available regarding the site and distribution of skeletalmetastatic lesions. A slight deviation noted was more common bony metastatic lesions with ovarian primariesin females and gastrointestinal tract cancers in males in our study.