Fifty-eight patients with bone
metastasis from
gastric cancer, of whom 33 patients were resected cases and 25 were autopsies, were investigated. The incidence of bone
metastasis of
gastric cancer was 13.4% (33/246) among autopsies and was higher than that (1.5%, 33/2242) among resected cases. We attempted to clarify the factors related to bone
metastasis by clinicopathological study. Bone
metastasis had a tendency to occur in invasive
cancer such as Borrmann types three or four. Histological examination revealed that 86% (50/58) of bone
metastasis was poorly differentiated
adenocarcinoma and that the stroma was scirrhous type in almost all cases. We measured serum
alkaline phosphatase in patients with bone
metastasis of recurrent
gastric cancer, and found that the levels were relatively related to the condition of bone
metastasis. However, the prognosis of patients with bone
metastasis was not good and the mean survival time was about 5 months after the appearance of symptoms. In our department, we employ total body
hyperthermia in such cases. This method has proved relatively effective for bone
metastasis, as reflected by bone scintigram and changes in serum
alkaline phosphatase values. As there is no reliable method of treatment for bone
metastasis of
gastric cancer, the present approach may be worth trying.