Skeletal Metastatic Disease

Cancer which started in other parts of the body, such as the breast, prostate, lung, kidney or thyroid, can spread to bones. When cancer spreads from another site to bone, it is called a metastasis, and can cause pain. If the cancer in the bone gets large enough, it can cause the bone to break, called a pathologic fracture. Pathologic fractures can be very painful, and have difficulty healing without surgery and radiation. In patients who have cancer that has spread to the bone, the goal is to prevent pathologic fracture, and to limit pain, by carefully studying the lesions in the bone as the treatment progresses, and making sure that any lesions that are presenting a risk of fracture are treated before they cause a problem.