What is a lytic lesion on the spine?
What is a lytic lesion on the spine?
Lytic lesions are areas where bone has been destroyed, leaving a hole in the bone. These lesions in the spine are common, and when severe, can lead to one or more vertebral compression fractures, which can be painful and even disabling.
What cancers cause lytic lesions?
Lytic lesions — spots where bone tissue has been destroyed — can be seen in other cancers, including breast cancer, lung cancer and kidney cancer. They can also be seen with infections of bone and even in some benign conditions. Taking a biopsy of one of the lytic lesions may help with your diagnosis.
Can a lytic bone lesion be benign?
They are benign, asymptomatic tumors with a well-defined sclerotic margin. They are usually juxtacortical in location and typically occur in the metaphysis of long bones, and are most common in the under 30 age group.
How to diagnose lytic bone lesions?
Diagnosis and Tests But confirmation of the diagnosis requires a bone marrow biopsy to get tissue. A biopsy is the most common test used to diagnose lesions on your bones. Your doctor will remove a piece of tissue or take a sample of cells from your body and check it in a lab under a microscope for signs of cancer.
How do you tell if a lesion is benign or malignant?
How do you know if a tumor is cancerous? The only way to be certain if a tumor is benign or malignant is with a pathology examination. While benign tumors rarely become malignant, some adenomas and leiomyomas may develop into cancer and should be removed.
Can an MRI tell if a lesion is benign or malignant?
Despite the superiority of MRI in delineating soft-tissue tumours, its ability is limited because most of these tumours have a non-specific appearance on MR images. Thus, it is often impossible using MR to determine whether the lesion is benign or malignant [5-8].
Which lesions are classically associated with posterior vertebral elements?
This article reviews lesions that classically arise from the posterior elements, mainly aneurysmal bone cyst, osteoid osteoma/osteoblastoma, myeloma, and osteochondroma; hemangioma, and giant cell tumor, which typically arise from the vertebral body but extend into the neural arch. Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
What is the difference between a benign and a lytic lesion?
Lesions that involve the posterior elements tend to be lytic, and they also tend to be benign more often than malignant.
Which radiographic findings are characteristic of lytic lesions?
Some lytic lesions have a characteristic radiographic appearance (including matrix) and/or location that are inherently diagnostic.
What are the work-up recommendations for the aggressive lytic lesion?
Further work-up recommendations for the aggressive, nonspecific lytic lesion typically consist of MRI and/or computed tomography (CT), a whole-body nuclear medicine bone scan, or even a biopsy.
