Structural consequences of endosteal metastatic lesions in long bones

Lytic metastatic lesions from breast, prostate, and other cancers often develop on the endosteal surface of a long bone without penetrating the cortical wall. Current clinical guidelines for determining the fracture risk associated with these endosteal defects do not account for the structural consequences of the lesion. We undertook a combined experimental and analytical study of the structural consequences of the lesions with the ultimate goal of providing improved fracture risk guidelines. Endosteal defects of variable length and involving a variable amount of the cortical wall were created with an expanding reamer in canine femurs. The contralateral femur served as a control. The femurs were tested to failure in four point bending. The geometry of the experimental defects was determined from radiographs and CT. Finite element models of the canine femurs were then used to examine geometric and material parameters in both four point bending and in torsion. The experimental data demonstrate a linear relation between bone strength and amount of cortical wall remaining: % intact strength = 99.6 x remaining wall thickness - 2.0, R2 = 0.769, standard deviation of regression = 11.57. Four of five data points from the linear finite element models were within the 95% confidence intervals for the experimental data. Experimental and finite element data suggest that the minimum wall thickness is the most critical geometric parameter for predicting the structural consequences of endosteal defects. The length of the defect along the bones' long axis has little effect on bone strength. The anelastic behavior of bone does not need to be represented in finite element models of simple endosteal defects because the defects do not cause significant stress concentrations. However, reduction in the modulus of bone along the border of a defect (due to osteolytic changes) can significantly reduce bone strength. These results indicate that the minimum wall thickness should be determined when clinically evaluating an endosteal defect. The results also suggest that information on bone porosity around metastatic lesions should be considered when making estimates of bone strength.