Incidence, Risk Factors, and Survival of Bone Metastases and Skeletal-Related Events in Melanoma Patients: A Systematic Review and Quality Assessment of 29 Studies
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Skeletal metastases make up 17% of all metastases from advanced-stage melanoma. Bone metastases are associated with increased morbidity and mortality and decreased quality of life due to their association with skeletal-related events (SREs), including pathological fracture, spinal cord compression, hypercalcemia, radiotherapy, and surgery. The study aimed to determine the incidence of bone metastases and SREs in melanoma, identify possible risk factors for the development of bone metastases and SREs, and investigate survival rates in this patient population. Methods: A computer-based literature search was conducted using Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials up to July 2023. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS) was utilized for quality assessment. Study characteristics, patient information, risk factors for developing bone metastases and SREs, and characteristics for survival were recorded. Results: We included 29 studies. The average bone metastasis-free interval ranged from four to 72 months. Incidence of bone metastases varied from 2 % to 49 % across 14 studies. 69 % (20/29) of studies described the location of bone metastases, with 24 % (7/29) focusing solely on spinal metastases. In one study, 129 SREs were recorded in 71 % (59/83) of the patient cohort, with various manifestations. The use of bone-directed agents was independently associated with lower risk of SREs. Survival after detection of bone metastasis ranged from three to 13 months. Factors associated with survival included clinical, tumor-related, and treatment features. Conclusion: This review highlights the notable prevalence and risk factors of developing bone metastases and subsequent SREs in patients with melanoma. The surge in bone metastases poses a challenge in complication management, given the high prevalence of SREs. While this study offers a comprehensive overview of the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes associated with bone metastases and SREs in melanoma patients that may guide patient and physician decision-making, a notable gap lies in the limited availability of high-quality data and the heterogeneous design of the existing literature. Future research should address predictive factors for bone metastases and SREs in melanoma to facilitate patient and physician decision-making and ultimately improve outcomes in this patient population.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.019 | 0.072 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.013 | 0.013 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.014 | 0.015 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".