2014 年 45 巻 3 号 p. 79-82
Effectiveness of treatment of pain caused by bone metastasis by external beam irradiation (EBRT) and isotope therapy is discussed for two cases. Case 1 was a female lung cancer patient with localized pain due to bone metastasis. Pain was controlled by EBRT but pain in the same location returned later. Repetition of EBRT was difficult due to severe side effects. Isotope therapy was used to control the pain. As a result, the patient consented to previously refused chemotherapy for the cancer.
Case 2 was a male prostate cancer patient with a huge pelvic bone metastasis that initially was not painful. A few months ago he had severe local pain. Focal EBRT alleviated the focal pain but slight pain spread throughout to multiple locations. Isotope therapy provided good pain control but did not decrease tumor size.
From these two cases, EBRT was effective for local pain control and isotope therapy was effective for multiple foci pain. However, isotope therapy was also shown to be effective for treating local recurrence of pain as well. The combination of the different methods was shown to be effective for raising quality of life (QOL) of patients.
