Impact of abnormal uptakes in bone scan on the prognosis of patients with lung cancer

Massive Pelvic Lymphadenopathy Due to Recurrent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Incidentally Revealed on a 99mTc-MDP Bone Scintigraphy

A 58-year-old man underwent Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy to evaluate the cause of diffuse bone pain. The images did not identify the exact cause of his symptoms. However, a "light bulb"-shaped urinary bladder and diffused increased activity in the scrotal region and left thigh were noted, which suggest a mass effect in the pelvis. A CT scan of the pelvis revealed soft tissue compressing the urinary bladder. A diagnosis of recurrent lymphoma was made.

Distribution Features of Skeletal Metastases: A Comparative Study between Pulmonary and Prostate Cancers

Bone scintigraphies are widely applied for detecting bone metastases. The aim of this study was to investigate distribution features of bone metastases in pulmonary and prostate cancers. Bone scintigraphies were performed in 460 patients with pulmonary cancer and 144 patients with prostate cancer. Patients were divided into three groups according to the total number of bone metastases: few bone metastases, moderate bone metastases, and extensive bone metastases. We compared the distribution of bone metastases in the two cancers, and analyzed the relationship between the distribution of metastatic lesions and their metastatic patterns. A total of 2279 and 2000 lesions of bone metastases were detected in 258 patients with pulmonary cancer and 102 patients with prostate cancer, respectively. In patients with few bone metastases, the distributions of metastatic lesions in the vertebrae (χ2 = 16.0, P = 0.000) and thoracic bones (χ2 = 20.7, P = 0.002) were significantly different between pulmonary and prostate cancers. In cases with moderate bone metastases, the distributions in the vertebrae (χ2 = 6.6, P = 0.010), pelvis (χ2 = 15.1 P = 0.000), and thoracic bones (χ2 = 38.8, P = 0.000) were also significantly different between the two cancers. However, in patients with extensive bone metastases, the distributions were very similar. As the total number of bone metastases increased, their distribution in pulmonary cancer did not noticeably change, but the distribution in the vertebrae and thoracic bones of prostate cancer patients significantly changed. Accordingly, the distribution characteristics of bone metastases differed in pulmonary and prostate cancers, mainly in the early stages of metastasis.