[Bone metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma: observations in patients treated with transcatheter arterial...

Bone metastases from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are fairly rare, their average occurrence rate being 7.3%. Seven cases of secondary bone lesions (2%) were observed in a series of 347 consecutive cases treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). The conventional X-ray and the CT patterns of secondary bone involvement were studied, together with histologic features, tumor and cirrhosis stage, and follow-up results. Bone metastases were detected in the early stages of cirrhosis and HCC, which suggested that patients might experience long survival if adequately treated. On the other hand, due to the lower rate of bone metastases in our series than in untreated cases, TACE cannot be said to be of even partial value in the treatment of distant HCC metastases. At any rate, bone metastasis alone is not necessarily a sign of poor prognosis, if it is adequately treated with radio-chemotherapy.