Bone Metastases – Lytic versus Blastic

History: 60 year old male with lung cancer.

Bone metastases: Sagittal CT of the thorax in bone windows shows multiple sclerotic and lytic foci within the thoracic spine vertebral bodies (arrows).

This patient had metastatic lung cancer to the bones. Bone metastases are classified as either blastic or lytic:

Lytic bone metastases occur in the following cancers: renal, lung, breast, thyroid, melanoma, chordoma, paraganglioma, GI tract, urothelial, ovarian, melanoma, chordoma, and paraganglioma.

Blastic bone metastases occur in the following cancers: prostate, breast, carcinoid, lung, GI, bladder, nasopharynx, and pancreas.

As you can see in the image above, lung cancer can produce both blastic and lytic metastases.