title: Quality of life after palliative radiotherapy in bone metastases: A literature review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the quality of life (QOL) following palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature search was conducted in OvidSP Medline (1946-Jan Week 4 2014), Embase (1947-Week 5 2014), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Dec 2013) databases. The search was limited to English. Subject headings and keywords included 'palliative radiation', 'cancer palliative therapy', 'bone metastases', 'quality of life', and 'pain'. All studies (prospective or retrospective) reporting change in QOL before and after palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighteen articles were selected from a total of 1730. The most commonly used tool to evaluate QOL was the Brief Pain Inventory. Seventeen studies collected data prospectively. An improvement in symptoms and functional interference scores following radiotherapy was observed in all studies. The difference in changes in QOL between responders and non responders was inconsistently reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  QOL improves in patients who respond to palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases.
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Leigha
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rowbottom
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bedard
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Popovic
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pulenzas
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: May
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsao
keywords: Advanced cancer; Bone metastases; Quality of life; Radiation therapy