title: Radiotherapy for bone pain.
abstract: Painful bone metastases are a common problem for cancer patients. Although current evidence supports the use of a single fraction of radiotherapy as the treatment of choice, many radiotherapists, for a variety of reasons, continue to use fractionated regimens. Over one six month period 105 patients received external beam irradiation for painful bone metastases at the Royal London Hospital (RLH). Thirty-one per cent of the patients were aged 70 or over. The treatment of 97 of these patients was assessed. They had a total of 280 sites treated over the course of their disease. Fifty-nine per cent of sites treated received a fractionated course of radiotherapy. Site significantly influenced fractionation. Overall response rates of 82% were achieved. Fractionation did not appear to influence this. Ten patients received large field irradiation. Fifteen patients had five or more sites irradiated, of whom only one received hemibody irradiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Royal London Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Needham
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Mithal
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hoskin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001847:Bone Diseases / Q000532:radiotherapy; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods; D012008:Recurrence; D016896:Treatment Outcome