ABSTRACT
Bone is the commonest site for breast cancer to metastasise: 60-80% of patients will have bony lesions. Observational studies suggest that approximately one-third of patients with metastatic breast cancer will develop structurally significant bone destruction.1 The same study discovered that only half of patients with structurally significant bone destruction were referred to an orthopaedic surgeon for consideration of surgical intervention. Possible reasons for this underutilisation of orthopaedic services include the frailty of the patient, poor expected life expectancy and the effectiveness of medical management of bony breast cancer metastases,2 but the lack of awareness amongst referring teams of the beneficial potential of orthopaedic surgery must also play a part.
