The incidence and management of bone metastasis from breast cancer

摘要

Mammary cancer is one of the solid malignancies, which easily metastasizes to bone. The frequency of bone metastases of breast cancer has been reported to be 65-75% of all breast cancer patients, and, in autopsy example at Shikoku Cancer Center, metastasis was recognized to be 74.7%. There are many symptomatic signs of bone metastases, but hypercalcemia needs to be treated immediately. Hypercalcemia might be diagnosed precisely because a lethal symptom appears. For diagnosis, bone scintigram, simple X-rays, MRI, and CT scan were effective. Radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and hormonal treatments were useful to improve the symptoms from bone metastasis; in addition, bisphosphonates demonstrated a synergistic effect with chemoendocrine treatments. Bisphosphonates also reduced the incidence of symptom-related events in patients with bone metastasis.