title: Half body irradiation for palliation of widespread metastatic bone disease.
abstract: An analysis is made of 134 patients treated by a single dose half body irradiation at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Singapore General Hospital. A total of 149 fields were treated with 15 patients receiving both upper and lower half treatments. This technique achieved a more than 70% subjective pain relief in the patients who had widespread bony metastases. Side effects were minimal and this technique has been used on an outpatient basis since the first preliminary study in 1986. There was a dose response, more than 75% (75 out of 97 patients) with pain relief using doses of 700 cGy and above. Sensitive tumours also produced better results with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, prostate and breast having pain relief in more than 70% of patients. The largest group of patients (51 cases) treated was nasopharyngeal carcinoma, as this tumour is fairly common locally and often presents with bony metastases as the first site of spread.
authors.affiliation: Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Singapore General Hospital.
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Sethi
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000379:methods; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000556:secondary*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017619:Hemibody Irradiation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011836:Radiation Tolerance; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D016896:Treatment Outcome