Journal Article

Natural History of Malignant Bone Disease in Gastric Cancer: Final Results of a Multicenter Bone Metastasis Survey

Maiello, Evaristo, Pedrazzoli, Paolo, Silvestris, Nicola, Pisconti, Salvatore, Satolli, Maria Antonietta, Cinieri, Saverio, Febbraro, Antonio, Bertocchi, Paola, Riccardi, Ferdinando, Santini, Daniele, Giommoni, Elisa, Ibrahim, Toni, Leo, Silvana, Trogu, Antonio, Angelini, Francesco, Brunetti, Anna Elisabetta, Di Palma, Teresa, Azzariti, Amalia, Ferrara, Raimondo, Bernardo, Antonio, Catalano, Vincenzo, Comandone, Alessandro, Pantano, Francesco, Gamucci, Teresa, Barni, Sandro, Bertolini, Alessandro, Russo, Antonio, Berardi, Rossana, De Vita, Fernando

2013

Overview

Bone metastasis represents an increasing clinical problem in advanced gastric cancer (GC) as disease-related survival improves. In literature, few data on the natural history of bone disease in GC are available. Data on clinicopathology, skeletal outcomes, skeletal-related events (SREs), and bone-directed therapies for 208 deceased GC patients with evidence of bone metastasis were statistically analyzed. Median time to bone metastasis was 8 months (CI 95%, 6.125-9.875 months) considering all included patients. Median number of SREs/patient was one. Less than half of the patients (31%) experienced at least one and only 4 and 2% experienced at least two and three events, respectively. Median times to first and second SRE were 2 and 4 months, respectively. Median survival was 6 months after bone metastasis diagnosis and 3 months after first SRE. Median survival in patients who did not experience SREs was 5 months. Among patients who received zoledronic acid before the first SRE, the median time to appearance of first SRE was significantly prolonged compared to control (7 months vs 4 months for control; P: 0.0005). To our knowledge, this retrospective analysis is the largest multicenter study to demonstrate that bone metastases from GC are not so rare, are commonly aggressive and result in relatively early onset of SREs in the majority of patients. Indeed, our large study, which included 90 patients treated with ZOL, showed, for the first time in literature, a significant extension of time to first SRE and increase in the median survival time after diagnosis of bone metastasis. Taken together, these data may support the beneficial effects of ZOL in GC patients.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Acids / Adult / Aged / Bone cancer / Bone Density Conservation Agents - therapeutic use / Bone diseases / Bone Neoplasms - drug therapy / Bone Neoplasms - epidemiology / Bone Neoplasms - mortality / Bone Neoplasms - secondary / Breast cancer / Cancer / Cancer therapies / Clinical trials / Diagnosis / Diphosphonates - therapeutic use / Ethics / Female / Fractures / Gastric cancer / Hospitals / Humans / Lung cancer / Lymphatic system / Male / Medical diagnosis / Medical imaging / Medical prognosis / Medical research / Metastases / Metastasis / Middle Aged / Multiple myeloma / Neoplasm Metastasis / Oncology / Patient Outcome Assessment / Patients / Population Surveillance / Prognosis / Prostate / Radiation therapy / Retrospective Studies / Stomach cancer / Stomach Neoplasms - pathology / Studies / Survival / Tumors / Zoledronic acid