Clinicopathologic features and clinical outcomes of gastric cancer patients with bone metastasis.

OBJECTIVE We conducted a retrospective analysis to evaluate the clinical manifestations and outcomes of a population of gastric cancer patients with bone metastasis. METHODS The subjects were 31 gastric cancer patients who were diagnosed with bone metastasis between January 2000 and December 2010. RESULTS The overall median survival time (MST) was 100 days. The results of a multivariate analysis in relation to overall survival showed that the absence of extraosseous metastasis and having received chemotherapy were favorable prognostic factors. MST was 269 days in the bone metastasis alone group (n = 6) and 65 days in the extraosseous metastasis group (n = 25). We divided the extraosseous metastasis group into two subgroups according to whether the patient had received chemotherapy. Evaluation of the response in the chemotherapy group showed that the subgroup of patients with progressive disease had a significantly longer MST than the no-chemotherapy group (63 days vs. 21 days, p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS We concluded that it is useful to divide gastric cancer patients with bone metastasis into two groups according to whether they have extraosseous metastasis. Aggressive chemotherapy should be considered as a means of improving the prognosis of gastric cancer patients with extraosseous metastasis.