Lung cancer with bone metastasis

Lung cancer with bone metastasis. This patient presented with a left humeral fracture (arrow), but with no history of trauma. The fracture was a pathological one, through a lytic bone metastasis. CXR shows the primary lesion – a 3 cm rounded mass in the right lung (circled).

Clues to the origin of bone metastases are often visible on a chest radiograph; for example, a lung tumour as in this case, previous mastectomy or other signs of breast surgery (clips in the breast and axilla), clips in the neck from previous thyroidectomy, clips below the diaphragm from a previous nephrectomy.