Palliative Radiotherapy to Asymptomatic Bone Metastasis: Is It Beneficial or Not? Single Institution Experience

Bone metastases are believed to be the complications of cancer occurring in 20-75% of patients with advanced tumors. External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is recommended in case of symptomatic bone metastases. Preventing skeletal-related events (SREs) and pain through early treatment of bone metastases is to be studied. We conducted the present study to investigate EBRT in asymptomatic bone metastases.
A retrospective cohort study for patients with bone metastases without symptoms, who were treated with EBRT, formed group A. Group B comprised the patients who did not receive EBRT. The time from diagnosis to onset of the 1st SRE was recorded for both groups. The follow-up period was three years. Pain was moderate to severe when rated as 5/10.
Asymptomatic bone metastases were found in 200 patients. They were free from pain or pathological fractures. They were divided into two groups of A and B. The overall demographics and disease characteristics were well-balanced for the two groups. The two groups were more or less similar concerning the mean age and sex, with no statistically significant differences; the mean age in groups A and B was 57 years. For both groups, the mean time from the occurrence of asymptomatic bony metastases to the onset of SRE were about 33 and 19 months for groups A and B, respectively, which is statistically significant.
Prophylactic EBRT of metastatic breast and prostate cancer patients should be considered in order to delay the onset of SREs and improve the quality of life.