Pain as an indicator of bone metastasis.
Patients with breast or prostate cancer routinely referred for bone scintigraphy were evaluated for the presence of skeletal pain, as determined by a self administered questionnaire. Pain was a common finding, whether or not metastatic disease was present, and occurred in over half of patients. Although most patients with bone metastases did report bone pain, a significant fraction (21% of breast and 22% of prostate patients) were asymptomatic. A distinct minority of individual anatomic regions of metastasis were painful: pain was reported in 23% of sites of breast metastases and 15% of metastatic prostate cancer sites. Of all sites at which pain was present, metastases were demonstrated in only about one half. These results indicate that pain is not a reliable indicator of the presence of location of metastatic bone disease.
Palmer
E
E
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Henrikson
B
B
McKusick
K
K
Strauss
H W
HW
Hochberg
F
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging