title: The efficacy of radiotherapy for vertebral hemangiomas.
abstract: Vertebral hemangiomas are benign, slowly growing tumors sometimes causing local pain in the spine and/or neurologic disorders. The present paper includes 14 cases of painful vertebral hemangiomas treated by radiotherapy. All patients were irradiated using standard fractionation scheme with a total dose 20-30 Gy. One month after the treatment complete pain relief was noted in 36% of cases, five months later in 67% of cases, but in the remaining cases partial pain relief was noted. No correlation between treatment outcome and different biological and technical factors was found. No dose-response relationship was noted. The results suggest that anti-inflamatory effect of radiation plays the major role in this kind of treatment and that radiotherapy for vertebral hemangiomas is easy, short and highly effective analgetic treatment modality.
authors.affiliation: Radiotherapy Department, Centre of Oncology - M. Skłodowska-Curie Memorial Institute, Gliwice, Poland. leszak@onkol.instonko.gliwice.pl
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Miszczyk
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ficek
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Trela
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spindel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000532:radiotherapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D013125:Spinal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome