The burden of metastatic disease presenting with axial skeleton lesions is exponentially rising predominantly due to advances in oncological therapies. A large proportion is these lesions are located in the proximal femora, which given its unique biomechanical architecture is problematic.

These patients are frequently comorbid and require prompt and concise decision making regarding their orthopaedic care in line with recent British Orthopaedic Association guidelines.

We present data detailing the outcomes for patients with proximal femoral metastatic disease referred and treated over a three year period in an Regional Cancer Centre.

We retrospectively reviewed a prospectively maintained database of all patients referred for discussion at MDT with axial skeletal metastatic disease. From this we isolated patients with femoral disease. Demographic data along with primary tumour and metastatic disease site were assessed. Treatment regimens were analysed and compared. Finally predicted and actual mortality data was collated.

331 patients were referred over the analysed time period, of which 99 had femoral disease. 66% of patients were managed conservatively with serial monitoring while 34% underwent operative treatment. 65% of those received an intramedullary fixation while 35% had arthroplasty performed. There was a 51:49 split male to female with Prostate, Lung and Breast being the predominant primary tumours. Concurrent spinal metastatic disease was noted in 62% of patients while visceral mets were seen in 37%. Mortality rate was 65% with an average prognosis of 388 days (1.06years) while average mortality was noted within 291 days (0.8 years).

Proximal femoral metastatic disease accounts for a large volume of the overall mets burden. There is an overall tendency towards conservative management and of those requiring surgery IM nailing was the treatment of choice. The data would indicate that outcomes for these patients are guarded and on average worse than those predicted.