2019 Volume 26 Issue 4 Pages 303-307
Between 2015 and 2017, we examined 7,773 new patients in our medical offices. We diagnosed eight patients as having developed malignant tumors that had not been diagnosed as malignant before visiting our offices. The incidence of malignancy in patients presenting with any pain in the body is approximately 0.1％. We diagnosed these eight patients with an MRI exam after suspecting malignancy based on the patient's symptoms and the physical examination findings. There were six patients with low back pain that had two red flags for malignancy. Those were “patient over 50 years of age” and “back pain regardless of posture or movement”. In addition to these two red flags, the treatments of nerve block were not completely effective for these patients. “Pain regardless of posture or movement” was also an important sign to distinguish malignancy in two patients with pain other than low back pain.
