[Distribution of bone metastases of cancers. A scintigraphic study of 376 cases]

Technetium 99m methylene bisphosphonate bone scans of 376 patients with cancers of breast, prostate, lung, kidney, colon, and bladder and ENT cancer were reviewed, and the distribution of skeletal metastases was analyzed. Differences were not significant for rank order of metastatic involvement in 9 selected regions in any cancer, but the breast carcinoma. Patients with breast cancer had less pelvis and more skull involvement. The rate of skull metastases was significantly higher in breast cancer than in prostatic (p < 0.001), lung (p < 0.01) and kidney (p < 0.05) cancers. These results are weakly demonstrative of a role of the vertebral veins in hematogenous spread of breast and prostate cancer. The hypothesis is proposed that this pattern of dissemination, which is suggested by experimental and clinical features, is poorly perceptible in the distribution pattern of skeletal metastases because of the concurrent arterial spread of breast and prostatic tumors cells, which is likely preponderant.