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Prostate cancer is a common and serious disease among American men, but it has a high survival rate when detected early. This editorial discusses the factors that contribute to the progression of prostate cancer and its lethality, including abnormalities in the androgen receptor pathway, microRNA, and the bony microenvironment. The authors suggest potential targets for therapy to improve survival in men with advanced prostate cancer. The document also includes information about funding and conflicts of interest, as well as a disclaimer that the views expressed are solely those of the authors. References to other articles and studies on prostate cancer treatment are provided. [Extracted from the article]

Bone metastasis of Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma (FTC) is an aggressive complication. Typically, follicular carcinoma remains confined to the thyroid gland, with distant metastasis occurring in 4-15% of cases. The lungs are the most frequent site of metastasis, followed by bone (2-13%). A peculiar clinical manifestation of FTC observed is the metastasis with the primary still remaining clinically occult. Solitary bone metastases are exceedingly rare and can easily be misdiagnosed as primary bone tumours on clinicoradiological assessment. This causes delays in the diagnosis and management. In these cases, the cytomorphology of cells on diagnostic Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) was found to be useful in suggesting the primary origin of FTC. Distant bone metastases from follicular carcinoma on histopathological examination from biopsy specimens have been reported in the literature. The cytodiagnosis and cytomorphology of metastatic FTC by Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) are seldomly described in the literature. Involvement of the iliac bone in the metastasis of FTC is uncommon. The FNAC of such a bony lesion helps immensely not only in the diagnosis of the metastasis but also in suggesting the primary malignancy. Authors, hereby report a clinicopathological profile of one such rare case of a 74-year-old female with cytodiagnosis of FTC with no clinical thyroid swelling. The cytodiagnosis made from the primary lytic lesion involving the left iliac bone led to the retrospective radiological and histopathological work-up of the thyroid gland, confirming the occult primary carcinoma of the thyroid gland. The present case highlights the rare presentation and cytomorphological details of metastatic thyroid follicular carcinoma.

Background: Venous thrombosis is a dreaded complication of long bone fractures. The occurrence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) may be high in specific cases such as bone tumors with pathological fractures. In this regard, more work is required to establish its correlation. Scanty data are available that shows whether pathological fractures increase the risk of DVT by comparing fracture fixation and replacement surgeries as a treatment. The anticoagulation protocols in published literature might not be suitable for this specific group. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective study on patients who underwent surgeries for pathological fracture fixation between September 2010 and October 2020. Their data were collected and analyzed. DVT is diagnosed by clinical sign, D-dimer test, and using color Doppler. The study population (n = 68) was compared and paired with a control group (n = 140) with similar baseline characteristics. Results: There were 12 patients (17.64%) in the study group and 8 (5.71%) patients in the control group that developed DVT after performing risk ratio and Student’s t-test and calculating odds ratio (P < 0.031). There was a statistically significant correlation found between the development of DVT with the type of implant used, the presence of neoplastic lesions, and the presence of metastases. Conclusion: Patients with a pathological long bone fracture who underwent surgical management are at greater risk for DVT or death due to pulmonary embolism under the current recommended thromboprophylaxis protocol. This risk of developing DVT is increased much fold in the presence of metastasis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, fracture fixation, and arthroplasty.

Bone metastasis of Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma (FTC) is an aggressive complication. Typically, follicular carcinoma remains confined to the thyroid gland, with distant metastasis occurring in 4-15% of cases. The lungs are the most frequent site of metastasis, followed by bone (2-13%). A peculiar clinical manifestation of FTC observed is the metastasis with the primary still remaining clinically occult. Solitary bone metastases are exceedingly rare and can easily be misdiagnosed as primary bone tumours on clinicoradiological assessment. This causes delays in the diagnosis and management. In these cases, the cytomorphology of cells on diagnostic Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) was found to be useful in suggesting the primary origin of FTC. Distant bone metastases from follicular carcinoma on histopathological examination from biopsy specimens have been reported in the literature. The cytodiagnosis and cytomorphology of metastatic FTC by Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) are seldomly described in the literature. Involvement of the iliac bone in the metastasis of FTC is uncommon. The FNAC of such a bony lesion helps immensely not only in the diagnosis of the metastasis but also in suggesting the primary malignancy. Authors, hereby report a clinicopathological profile of one such rare case of a 74-year-old female with cytodiagnosis of FTC with no clinical thyroid swelling. The cytodiagnosis made from the primary lytic lesion involving the left iliac bone led to the retrospective radiological and histopathological work-up of the thyroid gland, confirming the occult primary carcinoma of the thyroid gland. The present case highlights the rare presentation and cytomorphological details of metastatic thyroid follicular carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This investigation assessed whether the following factors were associated with radiographic local progression in bone metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC): (1) high-risk histologic features (2) lesional surgery (3) biologically effective dose (BED) of radiation therapy. Methods and materials: A single-institution database identified all patients who underwent surgery and radiation therapy for bone metastases from RCC to the appendicular skeleton and pelvis from 2006 to 2016. Thirty-six patients underwent radiotherapy for 80 metastases. While all patients had surgical stabilization, 17/36 also had lesional surgery to address the metastatic lesion. Progression of each individual lesion was determined using the application of RECIST criteria to imaging at last follow-up. Results: The rate of progressive disease was 8/25 (32%) in the high-risk group versus 5/55 (9%) in the standard-risk group (p ​= ​0.019). The rate of progression among high-risk metastases undergoing lesional surgery was 0/9 versus 8/16 (50%) having non-lesional surgery (p ​= ​0.0218). The rate of progression among standard-risk metastases undergoing lesional surgery was 1/16 (6%) versus 4/39 (10%) with non-lesional surgery (p ​= ​1.00). High-risk histologic features (OR: 10.592, 95% confidence interval: 1.347–83.271, p ​= ​0.025) and as well as a reduction in risk with every additional Gray of BED (OR: 0.902, 95% confidence interval: 0.827–0.984, p ​= ​0.021) were found to predict progressive disease. Conclusions: Bone metastases from renal cell carcinoma with high-risk histologic features are associated with less favorable response to radiotherapy than those with standard-risk histology. Delivery of a higher BED was associated with lower odds of progression.

Computed tomography (CT) is routinely used to diagnose and evaluate metastatic lesions in oncology. CT alone suffers from lack of sensitivity, especially for skeletal lesions in the bone marrow and lesions that have similar attenuation profiles to surrounding bone. Magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear medicine imaging remain the gold standard in evaluating skeletal lesions. However, compared to CT, these modalities are not as widely available or suitable for all patients. Dual energy computed tomography (DECT) exploits variations in linear attenuation coefficient of materials at different photon energy levels to reconstruct images based on material composition. DECT in musculoskeletal imaging is used in the imaging of crystal arthropathy and detecting subtle fractures, but it is not broadly utilized in evaluating infiltrative skeletal lesions. Malignant skeletal lesions have different tissue and molecular compositions compared to normal bone. DECT may exploit these physical differences to delineate infiltrative skeletal lesions from surrounding bone better than conventional monoenergetic CT. Studies so far have examined the utility of DECT in evaluating skeletal metastases, multiple myeloma lesions, pathologic fractures, and performing image-guided biopsies with promising results. These studies were mostly retrospective analyses and case reports containing small samples sizes. As DECT becomes more widely used clinically and more scientific studies evaluating the performance of DECT are published, DECT may eventually become an important modality in the work-up of infiltrative skeletal lesions. It may even challenge MRI and nuclear medicine because of relatively faster scanning times and ease of access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: With new evidence showing no need to perform staging bone scans (BS) in intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PC), we reviewed the practice and trends of performing BS in PC patients across the United Kingdom by analysing a cohort of PC patients from the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) radical prostatectomy (RP) database. We analysed the database as such for data entry and regional trends. Materials and methods: Between 2007 and 2016, patients who had BS were categorised according to D'Amico risk categories as low (LR), intermediate (IR) and high (HR). The IR group was subdivided into primary patterns 3 (IR3) and 4 (IR4). Subgroup analysis based on prostate-specific antigen and Gleason score was performed. Regional trends regarding data entry and no staging scans before RP were also analysed. Results: Over the study period, the database included 39,382 patients. The quality of data improved from 2011. A consistent drop in proportion of LR patients who had BS was noted over the study period which stood at less than 1% in 2016. This parallels an increase in proportion of HR patients, but the IR3 and IR4 proportion remained stable throughout the study. A large proportion of HR patients were deemed HR because of clinical T stage in the subgroup analysis. A progressive drop is noted in patients having no scan before RP, which stood at 3.66% in 2016. Out of 15 regions, 13 showed improvement in data completeness. Conclusion: In the United Kingdom, good adherence with guidelines to avoid BS in LR patients is noted but is still continued in IR. Updating the guidelines which are still not uniform and involvement of specialist multidisciplinary teams to reflect these would help reduce a considerable number of unnecessary BS being performed. Regional trends shown would help relevant centres to review their data entry process and potentially improve them. Level of evidence: not applicable for this multicentre audit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To establish the pattern of isotope bone scan ( BS) positivity in a large contemporaneous cohort of patients with newly diagnosed localised prostate cancer and compare with the European Association of Urology ( EAU) guidelines, as imaging guidelines and clinical practice for using BS to stage newly diagnosed patients with intermediate-risk localised prostate cancer are not uniform in the literature. Patients and Methods All patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer were discussed in a specialist multidisciplinary team meeting and were prospectively entered in a database. Patients were categorised based on D'Amico classification. All intermediate- and high-risk patients had pelvic magnetic resonance imaging and BS unless contraindicated. The BS positivity in each group was analysed and the negative predictive value ( NPV) calculated. A cohort of 2720 patients between 2002 and 2015 was retrospectively analysed. Results Of 976 patients in the D'Amico intermediate-risk category, 99 had primary Gleason pattern 4. Only one of the 99 patients had a positive BS and there were no positive BS in patients with Gleason primary pattern 3 in the intermediate-risk category. On subgroup analysis, based on prostate-specific antigen ( PSA) level and Gleason grade alone, the BS-positivity rate in patients with a PSA level of <20 ng/ mL and Gleason primary pattern 4 vs 3 was 6% and 0%, respectively, resulting in 100% NPV for a positive BS with Gleason primary pattern 3 and a PSA level of <20 ng/ mL. The importance of clinical T stage ( cT) was also noted, as eight of 146 patients had positive BS, who were high risk on cT stage, with a PSA level of <20 ng/ mL and Gleason score <8. All eight patients had Gleason primary pattern 4. By limiting BS to the population at risk (all high-risk + intermediate-risk with primary pattern 4), 68 BS per year could have been avoided in a single centre. A limitation was that there was no histological confirmation of bony metastases. Extending the BS recommendation considering the new Gleason Grade Grouping is discussed. Conclusion This study confirms that a staging BS can be safely avoided in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer with Gleason primary pattern 3 and to limit performing BS in all high-risk prostate cancer and in the intermediate-risk group when the primary Gleason pattern is 4, thereby reinforcing the current recommendations of the EAU guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 5% of the epithelial malignancies worldwide with clear cell carcinoma accounting for 85% of these malignancies. One third of these patients experience synchronous metastatic disease and 20-30% of the remaining patients experience metachronous metastatic RCC. Bony metastasis accounts for 20% of metastatic RCC. They most commonly affect the axial skeleton and rarely the long bones or the small bones of the hands and feet. Bone metastases from RCC are predominantly osteolytic in nature, leading to significant patient morbidity due to the associated Skeletal Related Events (SRE). SREs may significantly decrease patient quality of life. Bone pain is most common SRE and radiotherapy is most common form of treatment. Only 2% of the patients require surgery. Here we present a case of advanced RCC with tibial and ankle metastasis who presented to us after one year of radical nephrectomy with severe pain and inability to walk and underwent above knee amputation.

Objectives: We herein report our experience of double blind randomized clinical trial comparing combined an-drogen blockade vs monotherapy in stage D2 CaP. Patients and Methods: Through June 1999 and May 2001, 100 patients of stage D2 CaP were randomized into placebo (44) and flutamide (42) group after orchiectomy in double blind fashion using the strictest criteria. All men and histological proof of CaP with bone metastasis dem-onstrated on imaging: bone scan and skeletal survey. These patients were further substratified according to number o f bony metastases into high volume disease (HVD>5 sites) and low volume disease (LVD< 5 sites). The follow-up was at 3 month intervals. Criteria for decoding were clinical or serological progression and serious adverse effects. Results: Of the 100 patients recruited in the trial, 48 had HVD and 52 LVD. Treatmentwise they were almost equally distributed in flutamide group and placebo group. In the follow-up ranging front 6 to 24 months, 30 out of 100 patients (30%) required decoding, reasons for decod-ing were progression of disease in 25 and serious adverse effects in remaining 5. These 25 patients were further analyzed according to treatment group, volume of metas-tasis pre -orchiectomy PSA and Gleason score. We observed that number of bony metastases had impact over the dura-tion of response to hormonal therapy. Discussion: We initiated this simple trial to address the issue of benefit of total androgen blockade over monotherapy in Indian population. In the initial analysis, we observed that treatment group did not make any impact over the response. While subset of prostate cancer with large number of bony metastases has higher propensity to convert into hormone refractory cancer Conclusions: Addition of flutamide did not provide ben-efit. We observed that large number of bony metastases had poor response to hormonal therapy, hence it requires large trial to substantiate this initial observation.

During 2012-13, we diagnosed 4 patients with extensive skeletal tuberculosis (TB) who were referred to us as cases of bony metastasis with unknown primary. Radiological investigations done outside favoured a diagnosis of disseminated malignancy. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan performed in our institute for localization of primary lesion also suggested metastatic disease. There was no evidence of malignancy on histo-pathological examination (HPE) of the involved sites. The diagnosis of TB was established on characteristics HPE. This article highlights the diagnostic dilemma of PET/CT in cases of TB versus malignancy and the importance of HPE for reaching an accurate diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the additional value of single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) over whole-body planar bone scintigraphy and SPECT in prostate cancer patients in terms of diagnostic confidence, inter-reviewer agreement and the possible impact on the clinical management. This was a retrospective review of 40 consecutive prostate cancer patients (mean age 71 years) who underwent 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate (MDP) whole-body planar bone scintigraphy, SPECT and SPECT/CT between April 2006 and April 2008. The images were evaluated by two independent reviewers; inter-reviewer agreement was evaluated using a weighted kappa score. Each focus of abnormal increased tracer uptake was recorded using a 4-point diagnostic confidence scale. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. Fifty lesions on planar bone scintigraphy in the 40 patients were evaluated. On reporting the planar study and SPECT scans, reviewers rated 61% of lesions as equivocal. On reporting the SPECT/CT scans only 8% of lesions were rated as equivocal, 24% were rated as malignant and 68% as benign. Weighted kappa scores for inter-reviewer agreement were 0.43 for bone scintigraphy, 0.56 for SPECT and 0.87 for SPECT/CT. All were significant at p < 0.0001. Follow-up imaging confirmed the SPECT/CT diagnoses in 14 patients. The addition of SPECT/CT resulted in a significant reduction of equivocal reports; a definitive diagnosis was given in the majority of the patients due to the improved diagnostic confidence compared to planar or SPECT imaging alone in prostate cancer patients with suspected bone metastases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bisphosphonates are strong osteoclastic inhibitor activities, being these drugs usually for treatment of múltiple myeloma and bone metastases of solid tumors like breast cáncer. The osteonecrosis of the maxillary bones was first described in 2003. The relation of these medicines and maxillary bone osteonecrosis still uncertain. The incidence of this bone necrosis was very low before biphosphonates using. Nowadays this complication reach at least 10% of patients in these therapy using. The present work mean to alert for possible complication in biphosphonates using patients, thru a literature review and a clinical case presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-nine renal cell carcinoma patients with bony metastasis were intensively treated, primarily with immunotherapy using natural type interferon-α (IFN-α) continuous subcutaneous injection in combination with surgical resection and radiation therapy. Long-term survival was achieved, including three patients with complete response. The results of this study are presented. The mode of administration of IFN-α was as follows: natural-type IFN-α (25 000 000 IU) was dissolved in 60 mL of distilled water and administered via continuous subcutaneous injection (0.5 mL/h) as‘one course of the treatment’. Two courses of IFN-α therapy were given 2 weeks preoperatively, while 13 courses of IFN-α therapy were given postoperatively (one course per week). Thus, 15 courses of IFN-α therapy were administered during the trial period. Thereafter, IFN-α therapy was repeated either every week or every other week depending on the condition of the patient. Additionally, blood levels of IFN-α were monitored for four patients following initiation of IFN-α continuous subcutaneous injection therapy. Immediately after injection of IFN-α, blood levels of IFN-α started to rise, reaching 40.5 IU/mL on average at 24 h after initiation of IFN-α therapy. Thereafter, blood levels of IFN-α remained high and measurable blood levels of IFN-α were maintained for up to 24 h after completion of IFN-α injection. As a whole, IFN-α was detectable for 6–8 days and Cmax (maximum blood concentration of IFN) was 167 IU/mL. Thirty-nine patients with bony metastases were treated as follows: IFN mono-therapy (19 patients), IFN and radiation therapy (15 patients) and IFN and surgical resection of bony metastases (five patients). Fourteen patients survived and the details of these 14 patients are as follows: complete reponse in three cases, partial response in two, no change in six and progressive disease in three. Twenty-five patients died of renal cell carcinoma. The overall 5-year survival rate was 35.0%. These findings indicate that IFN-α continuous subcutaneous injection therapy is a useful modality for renal cell carcinoma patients with bony metastasis if administered in combination of radical nephrectomy and radiation therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]