Abstract

ROMERO PEREZ, ANTONIO; RIVAS VELASCO, ANA MARÍA  and  HOSPITAL UNIVERSITARIO SAN CECILIO. GRANADA. (ESPANA). Sintomatología osteoarticular como manifestación inicial de enfermedad tumoral. Rev. venez. oncol. [online]. 2007, vol.19, n.2, pp.135-141. ISSN 0798-0582.

OBJECTIVES: The musculoskeletal symptomatology could be initial manifestation of many tumours. Our intention is to show relevant epidemiological finds in rheumatology admissions with cancer diagnosis. METHODS: Follow up retrospective study by protocol review of medical histories in patients with neoplasm diagnosis in the period 1996-1998. RESULTS: 653 rheumatology admissions of 12 320 outpatients in this period; 5 % of them with cancer diagnosis (2, 7 % of all). Mean age was 69 years. Time between the initial symptoms and the diagnosis: 2 to 6 months (80 % cases). Musculoskeletal symptomatology: inflamed pain in the axial squeleton (12/36 %) back pain (7/21 %), dorsal-back pain (2/6 %), cervicobrachialgia (1/3 %), rachialgia (1/ 3 %) and continuous poliarthralgia (24 %), coxalgic (4/12 %), shoulder pain (3/12 %), scapular algid (1/3 %), polymyalgia in rheumatoid arthritis(2/6 %) and dermatomyositis(1/3 %). Main tumours: mieloma (10 cases) prostates carcinoma (9), digestive tumours (2), lung cancer (2), urogenital tumours (2) and others how breast tumours (1), leukaemia (1), endometrial (1) and metastasis status (5). Acute reactants as reactive C protein and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate were elevated in the 90 % of patients. CONCLUSIONS: 5 % of rheumatology admissions were diagnosed with cancer. The common epidemiological profile of this patient is an adult older than 60 years old, with symptoms of inflamed axial pain or continuous poliarthralgia, 2 moths ago since the beginning of symptoms elevated ESR and RCP are common in the most of these patients.

Keywords : Osteoarticular symptoms; tumor disease.