title: The prognostic significance of bone marrow metastases: evaluation of 58 cases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bone marrow biopsy is widely used method for diagnosis, follow-up and staging of hemato-oncologic diseases. This procedure is also used for determining the bone marrow metastasis in patients with solid tumors. In this study, clinical, hematological, and pathological features of 58 patients with bone marrow metastases diagnosed by bone marrow biopsies were examined retrospectively
  
  
  METHODS
  Among 3345 bone marrow biopsies performed in our hospital between January 2006 and August 2013, 58 cases with solid tumor metastasized to bone marrow were included in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 58 cases with solid organ carcinoma metastasis in bone marrow, mean age was 59.9. Thirty-nine cases were found to have a known primary tumor focus. The most common tumors metastasized to bone marrow were breast carcinomas (23 patients, 59%), gastric carcinomas (6 patients, 15.3%), prostate carcinomas (4 patients, 10,2%), and lung carcinomas (3 patients, 7.7%), respectively. Nineteen patients were firstly diagnosed from bone marrow biopsies as metastatic carcinomas. The median overall survival after bone marrow metastasis was 28 days (95% confidence interval: 7.5-48.4). The median overall survival difference was not statistically significant between patients with primary known and unknown tumor (P = 0.973). Statistically significant difference was observed between the survival of breast cancer and gastric cancer (P = 0.028). The most common hematologic symptom was the coexistence of anemia and thrombocytopenia (31%), thrombocytopenia (27.6%) and anemia (20.7%) alone. The median overall survival difference was statistically significant between patients who have anemia and thrombocytopenia (P < 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bone marrow biopsy is an easily accessible, easily applied, a useful procedure for diagnosing metastatic diseases in patients with hematologic symptoms such as anemia and thrombocytopenia besides being an uncomfortable procedure for patients. Furthermore, it is useful in predicting the prognosis and short survey after diagnosing bone marrow metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Izmir Katip Celebi University Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Betul Bolat
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Kucukzeybek
authors.forename: Aylin Orgen
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Calli
authors.forename: Yuksel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kucukzeybek
authors.forename: Sadi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bener
authors.forename: Yelda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dere
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dirican
authors.forename: Kadriye Bahriye
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Payzin
authors.forename: Fusun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ozdemirkiran
authors.forename: Mustafa Oktay
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Tarhan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D010336:Pathology / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome