Osteolytic cortical destruction: an unusual pattern of skeletal metastases.

Twenty-two histologically proven cortical metastases in 11 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma (10 squamous cell and one adenocarcinoma) were studied. The intracortical foci could be classified according to four distinctive patterns of bone destruction: small focal intracortical lesions ("cookie-bite" or "cookie-cutter" pattern); large osteolytic lesions; saucerized intracortical lesions with well-defined periosteal reaction; and lesions with predominant cortical destruction extending into the soft tissue as well as the medullary cavity. All lesions were located in the femoral bones.