Pathological investigation of vertebral tumor metastasis from unknown primaries--a systematic analysis.
BACKGROUND
This systematic analysis was conducted to investigate pathological diagnosis of vertebral tumor metastasis with unknown primaries.


METHODS
Clinical studies conducted to pathologically investigate vertebral tumor metastasis were identified using a predefined search strategy. Pooled diagnosis (PD) of each pathological confirmation was calculated.


RESULTS
For vertebral tumor metastasis, 5 clinical studies which included 762 patients were considered eligible for inclusion. Systematic analysis suggested that, for all patients with vertebral tumor metastasis, dominant PD was pathologically confirmed with lung cancer in 21.7% (165/762), with breast cancer in 26.6% (203/762) and with prostate cancer in 19.2% (146/762) . Other diagnosis that could be confirmed included lymphoma, multiple myeloma, renal cancer, for example, in this cohort of patients.


CONCLUSIONS
This systemic analysis suggested that breast, lung and prostate lesions could be the most common pathological types of cancer for vertebral tumor metastasis formunknown primaries, and other common diagnoses could include lymphoma, multiple myeloma, renal cancer.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, YangPu Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, Tongji, China E-mail : phqyue_xin@sohu.com.
Yan
Y
Zhang
Feng
F
Cai
Liang
L
Liu
Xiao-Dong
XD
Liu
D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000556:secondary*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*