TUMORI METASTATICI ALLE OSSA: RISULTATI DEI TRATTAMENTI E SOPRAVVIVENZA

During the clinical course of disease 110 out of 683 consecutive patients suffering from various malignant tumours developed secondary bone involvement. In 82/110 patients (pts) (74.5%) the site of the primary was the breast, and the percentage of clinical and radiological objective responses (OR) of their bone lesions (42.7 and 15.7% respectively) was higher than for cancer in other sites (clinical OR: 21.4%, radiological OR: 10.6%). The average survival of the 82 breast cancer pts was 87.4 months, or 38 months from the diagnosis of the bone metastases. Of the 110 pts with bone metastases 60 pts (54.5%) had secondary spinal involvement. The clinical and radiological OR (38.4 and 21.6%) was better in the pts with vertebral metastases than in the pts with bone metastases in other sites (clinical OR: 36%, radiological OR: 6%, (p = 0.04). The average survival time of the pts with vertebral involvement was 99.4 months, or 40.4 months from the time of diagnosis of the bone metastases. We feel that the results obtained, in terms of both OR and survival for pts with bone metastases, suggest that early and aggressive treatment can effectively improve these pts life's quality.