Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in lung cancer: are the radiographic bone changes reversible after curative resection?

Lack of relief of bone and joint pains and persistence of the radiographic abnormalities in patients with secondary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, after lung tumour removal, are considered as signs of an unfavourable prognosis. Two patients are documented in whom the lack of reversion of periosteal changes after tumour removal was compatible with a favourable long-term prognosis, suggesting that radiographic exploration is an insensitive technique to appreciate involutive bone changes occurring in these patients.