Session Speaker

An Evaluation of Half-Body Irradiation (HBI) as the Treatment of Cancer Patients with Widespread, Painful Bone Metastases
Leszek Miszczyk, Andrzej Tukiendorf, Aleksandra Gaborek, Jerzy Wydmanski
Poland

Aims: The evaluation of analgesics uptake, pain intensity, and quality of life (QOL) changes after HBI of patients with painful skeletal dissemination.

Material and methods: 95 patients treated with HBI. Patients were examined on the irradiation day, two and four weeks later, and next, once a month. The uptake of analgesics, pain level, and the QOL (QLQ-C30) were evaluated and analysed.

Result: The percentage of patients using strong opioids decreased from 43.8% to 33.3% in five months and the percentage of patients without need of analgesics increased from 6.7% to 25%. The pain level decreased from 6.1 points to 3.1 points two weeks after HBI. The correlation between pain level and time was found. An increase in five functional scales and global health status (QLQ-C30) was observed. A decrease was observed in six symptoms scales. Correlations were found between pain intensity and functional scales, and between symptoms scales and global health status.

Conclusions: HBI of cancer patients with painful multiple bone metastases is an effective and mere treatment giving significant QOL improvement and pain relief and allowing for strong analgesics uptake reduction.