Clinical outcome of 30 patients with bone marrow metastases

Cancer patients with bone marrow metastases are rare and dismal. The study was to identify the clinical features and prognostic factors in cancer patients with bone marrow metastases.

A total of 30 patients with bone marrow metastases were reviewed between September 2007 and September 2013. Bone marrow metastases were identified by bone marrow aspiration.

The median age was 56.5 years (range, 8-85 years). The two most common primary tumor sites were the stomach (7, 23.3%), breast (5, 16.7%). Bone metastases (27, 90.0%) were the most common concurrent metastases. The most common cause for bone marrow aspiration was anemia and thrombocytopenia (10, 33.3%). The median survival time was 3 months (range, 0.5-82 months). Patients with good performance status (n = 19) had a longer median survival time than patients with poor performance status (n = 11) (8 months vs. 1 months, P = 0.041). Patients with primary unknown origin (n = 5) had a significantly shorter overall survival time than patients with known origin (n = 25) (1 month vs. 6 months = 0.010). The median survival time was 9 months in the systemic therapy group (n = 21) and 1 month in the best supportive care group (n = 9) (P = 0.000).

To make primary origin clear and start systemic antitumor therapy is beneficial for patients with bone marrow metastases.