The efficacy of radiotherapy for vertebral hemangiomas

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.