A patient presents with a spinal metastasis. Ignoring the sex of the patient, which one of the following primary cancers is the patient most likely to

Subject
Medicine
System
Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Hematology & Oncology

DianaZ

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A patient presents with a spinal metastasis. Ignoring the sex of the patient, which one of the following primary cancers is the patient most likely to have?

A. Breast
B. Kidney
C. Lung
D. Prostate
E.Thyroid

Explanatory Notes:
The most common primary malignancies predominantly metastasizing to the spine include the following tumors in descending order: breast (21%), lung (19%), prostate (7.5%), renal (5%), gastrointestinal (4.5%), and thyroid (2.5%). While all tumors can seed to the spine, the cancers mentioned above metastasize to the spinal column early in the disease process.
Though all of the above cancers metastasize to bone, breast cancer is the most likely (20-35% of all breast cancer patients develop spinal metastases).
 
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