Pathology of skeletal metastases

Metastatic disease involving the skeleton is an unfortunate and common occurrence in cancer patients. Choosing the best diagnostic approach requires knowledge of the patient's clinical history, the radiologic appearance of the lesion, the differential diagnosis, and the ability of the diagnostic modality to answer the questions that must be addressed. In difficult cases, interaction between the pathologist and clinician before biopsy may make the difference between a rapid procedure serving to definitively diagnose and effectively stage a patient and a costly procedure that provides little or no information.