Pretell-Mazzini J, et al. - This study provides information regarding tumor characteristics, therapeutic approach, and oncological outcomes of skeletal muscle metastases (SMM). Findings reported overall poor survival. Furthermore, overall survival was driven primarily by the type of carcinoma. Data also indicated that an Increased LRR might be present due to the systemic nature of the condition, and degree of control of the primary carcinoma.

Methods

• Researchers conducted a systematic review of the literature using PubMed and EMBASE search engines.
• They reviewed 3231 references and included 49 studies.
• They recorded demographic data, presentation characteristics, and oncological outcomes.
• They also performed statistical analysis using SPSS 22.0 software (IBM; Armonk, New York) and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software version 3 (Biostat, Inc.), with p < 0.05 as statistically significant.

Results

• This study included a total of 231 patients.
• Findings demonstrated that these tumors presented more commonly on males 58.4% (135/231), with a mean age of 60.08 ± 10.6 years, and in the axial area 39.6% (88/222).
• According to data, the most common carcinoma type was lung 41.1% (95/231).
• No significant change was noted in the survival as a result of resection of a single metastases (p = 0.992).
• In the group of patients that underwent WLE vs. non-WLE group, higher LRR was noted [31.3% (23/74) vs. 8.7% (2/23), p ≤ 0.001].
• An estimate of 15.3 months was shown in the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis for the entire cohort [95% confidence interval (CI) 11.6–19; standard error (SE) 0.432], and it was also evident that lung carcinoma carried the worst prognosis 6.7 months (95% CI 5.4–8.07; SE 0.68).
• In addition, researchers observed that patients with a single SMM vs. patients with multiple metastases limited to muscles exhibited a worse estimate mean survival time [8.6 months (95% CI 4.7–12.5; SE 2.0) vs 25.4 months (95% CI 19.8–31.05; SE 2.8; p ≤ 0.001)].