Extensive Re-ossification and Reformation of the Proximal Femur After External Beam Radiotherapy in Metastatic Carcinoma Breast.

Management of metastatic bone disease is still evolving and is dependent upon many factors including the primary tumour type, expected life expectancy, site and size of lesion, character of the lesion, lytic or blastic, and the number of lesions. Active orthopaedic surgical intervention is usually required at the time of pathological fracture either impending or actual. Management options are either in situ fixation or replacement/arthroplasty. The role of post-operative radiotherapy is still not clearly defined and its biological effect on healing of pathological fracture is unclear. In this report, we describe a case of breast carcinoma with a large metastatic lytic lesion in the proximal femur, which was treated by in situ fixation followed by hormonal therapy and external beam radiotherapy. In the post-operative period, rapid and dramatic ossification and reformation of the proximal femur was observed.