[Bisphosphonate as an adjuvant therapy for the pain of bone metastases, 3 cases]

Pain from bone metastases limits mobility and may cause pathological fractures that can seriously impair the patient's quality of life. Conservative treatments such as orthopedic fixation, radiotherapy, and opioids sometimes fail to give satisfactory pain relief. Bisphosphonates have been reported to reduce the severity of pain from bone metastasis due to breast cancer, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma. Recent clinical reports demonstrated the effectiveness of bisphosphonates in reducing pain from bone metastases in various malignancies. This study presents 3 cases of refractory pain from bone metastases due to thyroid, colorectal and hepatocellular carcinoma. Primary treatment included orthopedic fixation, radiotherapy, and/or parenteral opioids that failed to reduce bone pain. Bisphosphonate therapy was considered at the start of pain control treatment using opioids. All 3 cases showed gradual reduction in pain after i.v. pamidronate administration and allowed physicians to control further pain with opioids. In 1 case, the patient was successfully withdrawn from opioids. The role of bisphosphonates in painful bone metastases remains unclear. However, recent encouraging reports have indicated that bisphosphonate may become one of the adjuvant treatments available to control refractory bone pain from various malignancies.