Prognostic role of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma: Evidence based on 1,677 subjects.

INTRODUCTION

The prognostic role of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma has not been settled down, as previous researches have reached contradictory results. This study is prepared to clarify whether pathologic fracture predicts a poor prognosis of patients with osteosarcoma.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

After completely retrieved databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PubMed, Highwire, EMBASE and Science Direct, all eligible articles were included based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. And we performed a meta-analysis to calculate the pooled prognostic role of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma.

RESULTS

Finally, a total of 8 articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, involving 1,677 subjects. We found that the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidential interval (CI) of pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) are 2.13 (1.43, 3.15) and 1.58 (1.11, 2.24), respectively.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis demonstrated that presentation with a pathologic fracture in osteosarcoma was correlated with a poor prognosis. And pathologic fracture might be a poor predictor of survival in osteosarcoma.