The risk factors of bone metastases in patients with lung cancer

The risk factors of bone metastasis in patients with lung cancer are still unclear. Here, a retrospective study including a series of consecutive patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer between January 2005 and November 2016 was carried out. A total of 2021 patients with lung cancer were included in this study and 23.9% of them were found to be bone metastases. For patients with bone metastases, adenocarcinoma (62.1%) was the most common pathological subtype, and rib (62.3%) was the most frequent distant metastatic site, followed by thoracic (53.8%) and lumbar spine (40.4%). The histopathologic type, CA-125 level and the concentration of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were identified as the independent risk factors for bone metastases in lung cancer (P = 0.002, P = 0.001 and P < 0.001). The sensitivities and specificities of diagnosing bone metastasis by CA-125 were 32.1% and 80.8%, and by ALP were 41.3% and 77.1%, respectively. Thus, the incidence of bone metastases in lung cancer patients was relative high, and physicians should pay attention to the histopathologic type, the serum CA-125 and ALP concentrations when patients were firstly diagnosed with lung cancer for early detecting bone metastases.