Bone marrow biopsy in the staging of malignant epithelial tumors

Bone marrow biopsy was performed routinely on 1,068 patients and 1,268 biopsies were obtained. In 547 epithelial tumors bone marrow involvement was present in 95 patients (17.4%); no metastatic involvement was found in 41 cases of nonepithelial tumors. Bone marrow metastases were present mainly in prostatic (54.1%), breast (26.5%), gastric (18.5%) and lung cancer (7.9%). In 26 cases the primary location was initially unknown; histology was useful in the detection of primary tumors. Histology was compared either with aspiration cytology or with bone X-ray and scan.