title: Retrograde analysis of clinical characteristics of bone metastasis in 1,031 cases of preliminarily diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the clinical characteristics of bone metastasis (BM) in a large sample of preliminarily diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs).
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of 1,031 patients diagnosed with NPC at first visitg clinics between October 1989 and June 2012. Several parameters including metastasis locus, T/N staging, diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of BM were analyzed retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 70 patients who had been preliminarily diagnosed with BM, the incidence of BM in N0, N1, N2 and N3 stage was 5.7%, 17.2%, 50.2%, and 25.7%, respectively, while the incidence in T0, T1, T2 and T3 stage was 0%, 23.8%, 47.6% and 28.6% respectively. BM occurred in most common in vertebral column, rib, sternum, ilium and femur. Positive rate of Epstein-Barr virus antibody was 77.6%. The median survival time was 12 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence of BM in NPC preliminarily diagnosed is about 7% and it is related to N classification but not T classification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China E-mail : Zhaochanglin120@163.com.
authors.forename: Chang-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Guo-Qiang
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Xiao-Yin
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral