CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1582022
This article is part of the Research TopicBone Metastases in Endocrine Cancers: Advances in Diagnosis, Treatment, and PreventionView all 3 articles
Case report: Is the isolated bone change in advanced colorectal cancer necessarily malignant metastasis?
Provisionally accepted
Huimin Xue1
Xin Sun1
Xiaomei Yang1
Wenjuan Chen1
Juan Chen1
Xiujuan Qu1,2,3,4*
Ying Chen1,2,3,4*Jinglei Qu1,2,3,4*- 1Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
- 2Key Laboratory of Anticancer Drugs and Biotherapy of Liaoning Province, First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
- 3Liaoning Province Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
- 4Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Tumors, Ministry of Education, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
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Background: Radiation osteitis (RO) is a bone-related complication following radiotherapy (RT), often characterized by atypical imaging features. It is challenging to distinguish RO from early bone metastasis (BM), potentially leading to inappropriate treatment. Therefore, establishing reliable diagnostic criteria for accurately identifying RO is essential for improving treatment outcomes in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC).Case description: Two cases of advanced CRC patients with atypical isolated bone changes on imaging are presented. Both patients received standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy after surgery. Through comprehensive imaging studies, laboratory evaluations, and multidisciplinary team (MDT) consultations, the diagnosis of RO was confirmed instead of BM, thereby avoiding the need for an invasive pathological biopsy.Conclusions: This case report highlights imaging features of RO and provides valuable insights into differentiating RO from BM by integrating medical history, laboratory findings, and imaging results.
Keywords: Radiation osteitis, Radiotherapy, Pelvis, bone metastasis, case report
Received: 23 Feb 2025; Accepted: 10 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xue, Sun, Yang, Chen, Chen, Qu, Chen and Qu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiujuan Qu, Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
Ying Chen, Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
Jinglei Qu, Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
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