Introduction:

in recent years, scientific interest in bone marrow invasion or infiltration by non-hematological malignant cells has increased due to growing evidence suggesting a prognostic impact in certain specific types of solid tumors. However, the available data on the primary source of metastasis are scarce.

Objective:

synthesize the reported data on non-hematological tumors infiltrating the bone marrow in studies based on histopathological confirmation of metastases.

Methodology:

PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar were used for the systematic review; the filters used were human studies, adult age (>14 years old), and the period between 1990-2021. The main inclusion criteria was the histopathological confirmation of bone marrow invasion. The exclusion criteria were small case reports, specific neoplasm criteria, and grouped case series in secondary literature to minimize bias. Three different researchers evaluated all the titles and abstracts available. Two researchers independently extracted and recorded data; this process was cross-checked again. Finally, data were summarized and presented in tables using descriptive statistics.

Results:

31 articles from 12 countries were included; four were multicenter, and all but 2 were retrospective. One thousand four hundred fifty-one adult patients with Bone Marrow Metastasis due to solid tumors were found. All included studies presented the distribution of the primary source of metastases: 82 % were epithelial neoplasms, 14 % were tumors of unknown primary origin, and 10 % were low-frequency specific neoplasms grouped as 'others'.

Conclusion:

the results can be considered with caution due to the methodological heterogeneity of the studies and the risk of bias.

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