Bone Metastases (Subscribe)  

Illustrated cases. See also -
Metastatic abdominal carcinoid tumor
Metastatic breast carcinoma
Metastatic breast carcinoma pseudotumor (Bone island)
Metastatic breast carcinoma pseudotumor (Stress fracture)
Metastatic cervical carcinoma
Metastatic colon carcinoma
Metastatic gallbladder carcinoma
Metastatic hepatoma
Metastatic lung carcinoma
Metastatic melanoma (skin)
Metastatic pancreatic carcinoma
Metastatic prostate carcinoma
Metastatic prostate carcinoma pseudotumor (Bone island)
Metastatic prostate carcinoma, lytic type
Metastatic rectal carcinoma
Metastatic renal cell carcinoma
Metastatic squamous...

This condition rarely occurs in patients who have a biopsy proven cancer but no known primary lesion. The oncologist must rely upon the pathologist to use their diagnostic skills to render a likely source which may guide the therapy.

rovides an overview, facts and stastistics related to metastatic bone cancer. Includes links to breast, lung and kidney cancer sites because these cancers are most likely to metastasize to the bone. Includes treatment goals.

Metastatic bone tumours: Notes on common causes and how to manage a bony metastasis
Metastases are the most common bone tumours in older patients. They will present to the orthopaedic surgeon with pain, either because of an actual or threatened pathological fracture, or will present with a lytic or sclerotic bone...

Radiology case 48-3318 Clinical presentation: A child who had had chemotherapy for a previous upper abdominal tumour.
There is patchy bone destruction in the metaphyses and endosteal scalloping of the cortex of the diaphyses of the humeri, giving an irregular appearance.

Radiology cases 338-3328 Clinical presentation: 70 year old man with frequency, post-micturition dribbling and some back pain.
There is a marked increase in the bone density of lumbar vertebrae and a patchy increase in sacrum and pelvis. The density is not homogeneous in the spine and its extent over the transverse processes...

Radiology case 338-3320 Clinical presentation: 66 year old woman with back pain and previous abdominal surgery.
There are three dense lumbar vertebrae. L1 to L3. The body of L2 has some reduction in height. The pedicles of the affected vertebrae, atypically, remain visible. Branched lucencies are visible over the liver.

Radiology case 416-3313 Male patient. Presented at the age of 20 years with low back pain. Became paraplegic at the age of 38 years and an ependymoma was excised. Developed a fracture of the humerus at the age of 57 years.
The image was taken through a plaster cast. It shows...

fractures which occur from low energy injuries which occur thru an area of bone weakness with a pre-existing abnormality; - injured area demonstrates distored archetecture and distored bone density;

Pathologic Humerus Fracture Reuben Gobezie MD, Brent A. Ponce MD, John Ready MD DEPARTMENT OF ORTHOPAEDICS, BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL, BOSTON MA Introduction Bony lesions may result in pathologic fractures. These lesions, when not of mesenchymal origin, commonly include myeloma, lymphoma, and most commonly metastastic carcinoma. The axial skeleton is the third most common...

Xray and bone scan
Close inspection of the left sacral wing reveals absence of the neural foramena and lateral margin.
* The pelvic ring is incomplete posteriorly on the left, implying adjacent left iliac bone destruction.

This document serves to list those cases of purely osteolytic (destructive) metastasis in the spine. Detection, as elsewhere, involves a knowledge of normal structures of bone density and a systematic scheme to ensure detection of their absence from the image. In the spine, the pedicles are potentially, the most vascular...

Simply bone destruction and replacement by tumour mass. Most gamuts indicate lytic metastasis and myeloma together near the top of the list in a mature patient. Radiographic detection involves the frequently difficult observation of the absence of a normal structure. The lesions are made more difficult to detect by the...

Sclerotic metastases are easily identified on the plain film, except when their density is interpreted as other overlying structures or pathology, perhaps osteoarthrosis. The microscopy of affected bone usually shows a proliferative bone reaction to the spread of tumour over the bone trabeculae. This results in the visible diffuse sclerosis...

sclerotic bone metastases. Notes, links and Images
* prostate
* bladder
* rectum
* breast (occ.)
* bronchus
* carcinoid tumors
* Hodgkin disease
* stomach