bone metastases
bone metastases
Cancer that has spread from a primary tumour to the bone marrow; in descending order of frequency, bone mets originate from: breast, prostate, lung, colon, stomach, bladder, uterus, rectum, thyroid, kidney.Clinical findings
Bone pain, soft-tissue swelling or a pathologic fracture after minor or no reportable trauma. Chronic and severe pain, spinal epidural compression leading to spinal cord compression and bone marrow failure are complications of bone metastases that can drastically reduce the patient's quality of life and life expectancy.
DiffDx
• Osteolytic metastases—Osteoarthritis (subchondral cysts, Schmorl nodes), metabolic bone disease, cystic angiomatosis and infiltrative bone marrow lesions.
• Sclerotic metastases—Bone islands, tuberous sclerosis, mastocytosis or osteopoikilosis.