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Biopsy of vertebral tumour metastasis for diagnosing unknown primaries
Orhan Buyukbebeci1, Gunhan Karakurum, Ediz Tutar
1Orthopaedics and Traumatology Department, Medicine Faculty, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
Purpose:
To examine patients with vertebral tumour metastasis using transpedicular biopsy for diagnosing unknown primary tumours.
Methods:
13 men and 8 women aged 41 to 80 (mean, 61) years with vertebral tumour metastasis of unknown primary origin underwent transpedicular biopsy of the affected vertebra.
Results:
The origins of the primary tumours were lung cancer (n = 6), prostate cancer (n = 5), colorectal cancer (n = 5), kidney cancer (n = 4) and lymphoma (n = 1). All the specimens matched pathological characteristics of their corresponding primary tumours, except in one patient. This 42-year-old man had stage-4 colon cancer, in whom the pathologic findings could not enable differentiation between colon and prostate cancer.
Conclusion:
Transpedicular biopsy of the vertebra is a cost-effective diagnostic tool for evaluating unknown primary tumours.