Treatment of patients with bone marrow metastases: the present state of the problem

Abstract

The paper reviews the data available in the literature on the identification of tumor cells in bone marrow and peripheral blood in different tumors and breast cancer. Analysis of the majority of investigations suggest that the presence of tumor cells in the bone marrow correlates with early disease recurrences and lower survival; to detect bone marrow tumor cells is one of the most important approaches to early identifying metastases and improving the results of treatment for breast cancer. The paper gives the results of an investigation conducted at the N.N. Aleksandrov Republican Research and Practical Center for Oncology and Medical Radiology in 2008 to 2014, which established that the presence of cancer cells in the bone marrow is a poor prognostic sign: the 3-year relapse-free survival of patients with the unaffected and affected bone marrow was 88.7 and 69.3 %, respectively (p < 0.01).

Keywords

• breast cancer
• micrometastases
• tumor cells in bone marrow
• polymerase chain reaction