Site of Bone Metastasis Useful for Prognosis of Prostate Cancer NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 14 - In men with advanced prostate cancer, classifying bone scans according to the metastatic site has prognostic value, according to a report published in the October issue of The Journal of Urology. Dr. Jerome Rigaud and colleagues, from CHU Hotel Dieu in Nantes, France, assessed the outcomes of 86 patients with prostate cancer metastatic to bone who had received primary androgen deprivation therapy. All of the patients underwent bone scanning and were divided into two groups based on whether the metastases involved the axial or appendicular skeleton. Sixty-three patients had appendicular skeletal metastases and 23 had axial skeletal metastases, the authors report. The groups were equal in terms of patient age, biopsy Gleason score, serum PSA level, and clinical stage. The median survival for the axial group was 53 months, while that of the appendicular group was only 29 months, Dr. Rigaud and colleagues found. Further analysis confirmed that axial disease was associated with significantly better survival than appendicular involvement (p = 0.048). Bone scan classification systems currently in use rely on the number of metastases and the severity of metastatic disease. In the current study, neither of these systems were useful in predicting survival. Classifying bone scans according to the site of metastases "is easy to understand and helps urologists better predict the patient's prognosis," the researchers state. Such a system should be incorporated into clinical trials, they add. J Urol 2002;168:1423-1426. Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.