Bone metastases and palliative radiotherapy at the Nora Astorga National Radiotherapy Center, 2012-2017

Abstract

We analyzed the current panorama of palliative radiotherapy management for bone metastases in cancer patients treated at the Nora Astorga from January 2012 to March 2017. We used a descriptive, analytical, non-experimental, retrospective cross-sectional method, using data from the cancer registry (REGCAN-CNR) database, analyzed with the SPSS statistics software 20 version. Among the main results show a higher incidence of cases in the female sex (65%) with a male-female ratio (1: 1.9); 64% of patients were over 50 years. Bone metastases were present mostly in the following breast, prostate, uterine cervix and lung cancers, with annual decrease to 4%. The most common site for bone metastases was the dorsal and lumbar column (48% of cases). Overall, survival free from bone metastases after histopalogical posdiagnosis and end of treatment for stage III disease was approximately 22,1 months.
The most commonly used palliative external-beam radiotherapy was 2D planning, with hypofraccionated, single-dose 8Gy schedules. Radiodermatitis and enteritis grade I and II were the most common acute complications. Improvements in pain
control were observed at 11 days after palliative radiotherapy (RTP). Patients’ overall survival after diagnosis of bone metastasis was 63% at 13, 5 months. Five-year cumulative survival was 9%.

Keywords: bone metastasis, radiotherapy, palliative radiotherapy with cobalt-60.