Predicting survival of patients with bone metastasis of unknown origin

Purpose: Bone metastasis of unknown origin is a rare and challenging situation, which is infrequently reported. Therefore, the current study was performed to analyze the clinicopathologic features and risk factors of survival among patients with bone metastasis of unknown origin.

Patients and methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data for patients with bone metastasis of unknown origin between 2010 and 2016 based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were first analyzed by applying univariable Cox regression analysis. Then, we performed multivariable analysis to confirm independent survival predictors.

Results: In total, we identified 1224 patients with bone metastasis of unknown origin for survival analysis, of which 704 males (57.5%) and 520 females (42.5%). Patients with bone metastasis of unknown origin had a 1-year OS rate of 14.50% and CSS rate of 15.90%, respectively. Race, brain metastasis, liver metastasis, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy were significant risk factors of OS on both univariable and multivariable analyses (p <0.05). As for CSS, both univariable and multivariable analyses revealed that no brain metastasis, no liver metastasis, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy were associated with increased survival (p <0.05).

Conclusion: Patients with bone metastasis of unknown origin experienced an extremely poor prognosis. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy were beneficial for prolonging the survival of those patients.