title: Palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases: short-course or long-course?
abstract: For patients of bony metastases, the survival time becomes much longer as the anti-tumor strategies developed. External beam radiotherapy is effective for pain-relieving. The appropriate fractionation scheme for the most effective regimen of palliative radiotherapy to treat bone metastases is still in debate. This article reviews the prospective randomized trials comparing short-course or long-course regimens of palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. No. 651, East Dongfeng Rd. Guangzhou 510060, China. zhuyuj@sysucc.org.cn.
authors.forename: Yu-Jia
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
keywords: Bony metastases; external beam radiotherapy; long course; short course