OSSEOUS METASTATIC PATTERN IN BREAST-CANCER - RELATION BETWEEN ANATOMICAL DISTRIBUTION AND ULTERIOR VISCERAL INVOLVEMENT

The development of ultimate visceral metastases and the visceral metas tases-free time interval was evaluated in patients with breast carcino ma bearing bone-only metastases. Ninety patients were identified and w ere subdivided into three groups according to the anatomic distributio n of osseous lesions: group A with osseous involvement cranial to the lumbosacral junction, group B caudal to this, and group C with lesions in both areas. The purpose of this subdivision was to evaluate if the re is any correlation between bone-metastases distribution and probabi lity of developing visceral lesions. All patients received systemic th erapy consisting of hormonal therapy, chemotherapy or both. The median survival for the whole group was 28 months, whereas it was 33, 43 and 26 months for patients in groups A, B and C, respectively (p=NS). No differences in subsequent visceral involvement and visceral-free time interval were observed among the three groups of patients regardless o f tumor burden. In conclusion, our analyses did not show significant d ifferences in the incidence of visceral metastases, visceral metastase s-free time interval and overall survival in patients with breast canc er with bone-only lesions independently of anatomic distribution.