[Radiotherapy of distant metastases of urological malignant tumors]

The largest subgroup of patients with metastasised urological malignancies are those with metastases of the bone. Lesions of bones frequently reduce the patients quality of life. Therefore a sufficient therapy is crucial. First of all the appropriate diagnostic procedure of the lesion/lesions is necessary because e the right choice of diagnostic measures may already improve quality of life. Besides the most frequently used local irradiation a systemic radiotherapy may be the adequate therapy in patients with disseminated disease. Renal cell-, bladder and penile cancer respectively are the urological malignancies frequently metastasising into the brain. Adequate diagnostic procedures and therapy are crucial to the patients quality of life for the remaining lifetime. Besides a whole brain irradiation as standard therapy stereotactic radiotherapy is a high precision tool to destroy intracerebral tumour. There are many other locations of metastatic disease (i.e. lymph node or soft tissue metastasis, et cetera) where palliative external beam irradiation may provide relief from symptoms such as pain, lymph oedema or bleeding and thus increase quality of life. Psychological and social care are of great value besides symptom oriented therapy (i.e. radiotherapy, drugs, et cetera) to achieve an optimal palliation/quality of life.