[Radiotherapy in bone metastases--with special reference to its effect on relieving pain]

Between December 1986 and January 1978, 68 patients with bone metastases were analyzed to evaluate the effect of radiation for the relief of pain. The 68 patients, who had a total of 97 lesions, complained of pain caused by their bone metastasis. The good, fair, and poor responses were found to be 18%, 60%, and 22%, respectively. With reference to the primary neoplasms, the effective response rate was 73% in lung cancer, 100% in breast cancer, 75% in gastric cancer, 100% in hepatic cancer, 100% in bladder cancer, 25% in epipharyngeal cancer, and 70% in the other neoplasms. Depending on the cell types of the lung cancer, the effective response rate was 80% for small cell carcinomas, 72% for adenocarcinomas and 40% for squamous cell carcinomas. Our results suggest that radiotherapy for bone metastases is to be recommended, since the effective response rate was 78% for the relief of pain.