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Retreatment with radiotherapy for painful bone metastases
N P Mithal1, P R Needham, P J Hoskin
1Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.
Purpose:
To evaluate the response to reirradiation of painful bone metastases following initial treatment with radiotherapy.
Methods And Materials:
A retrospective analysis of 105 consecutive patients treated with palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases. A total of 280 individual treatment sites were identified, of which 57 were retreated once and 8 were retreated twice.
Results:
The overall response rate to initial treatment was 84% for pain relief, and at first retreatment this was 87%. Seven of eight patients retreated a second time also achieved pain relief. No relation to radiation dose, primary tumor type, or site was seen.
Conclusions:
In patients relapsing after radiotherapy to painful bone metastases who have responded initially, reirradiation can be recommended with a similar probability of response.