Background: The term 'solitary bone metastasis' is defined in the present study as a single bone metastasis originating from a primary cancer without visceral organ metastasis. We assessed the survival rates and prognostic factors in 42 patients with solitary bone metastasis, and discussed the impact of different surgical strategies on survival.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 42 patients (25 male, 17 female) who underwent treatment for solitary bone metastasis at a single institution. The median age of the patients was 64.5 years (range 41-82 years). The patients were followed for an average period of 21.2 months (range 0.4-127.3 months). Their clinical records were retrospectively reviewed. Factors influencing survival were determined using univariate and multivariate analyses; particular attention was paid to the orthopedic surgery used for solitary bone metastasis.
Results: The 1-year survival rate was 76.5%, and the median survival period was 30.0 months. The presence of primary cancer and poor performance status were identified as independent prognostic factors using Cox regression multivariate analysis. Tumor resection and surgical margin were not significantly related to patient survival.
Conclusions: The results of this analysis indicated that the prognosis for patients with solitary bone metastasis depended on the presence of primary cancer and on poor performance status.