title: Prognostic role of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma: Evidence based on 1,677 subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prognostic role of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma has not been settled down, as previous researches have reached contradictory results. This study is prepared to clarify whether pathologic fracture predicts a poor prognosis of patients with osteosarcoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  After completely retrieved databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PubMed, Highwire, EMBASE and Science Direct, all eligible articles were included based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. And we performed a meta-analysis to calculate the pooled prognostic role of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Finally, a total of 8 articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, involving 1,677 subjects. We found that the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidential interval (CI) of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) are 2.13 (1.43, 3.15) and 1.58 (1.11, 2.24), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis demonstrated that presentation with a pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma was correlated with a poor prognosis. And pathologic fracture might be a poor predictor of survival in osteosarcoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Mingming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005598:Fractures, Spontaneous / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D017594:Publication Bias; D016019:Survival Analysis