107C Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - Part I: Etiology, pathology, diagnostic evaluation and principles of management

This course will review some of the basic mechanisms involved in the genesis of bone pain. A comparative analysis of the clinical trials of local field irradiation on bone m&stases including dose and fractionation schedules, response rates, duration and evaluation of response will be discussed. The role of large field hemibody and systemic irradiation (e.g. isotopestiontium) in the treatment of metastatic disease will be presented. The topics include the response rates and duration of response of symptomatic metastases, the effect of each technique on the delay in progression of overt symptomatic disease as well as a delay in the appearance of new disease and the morbidity associated with each treatment modality. The design of several current trials will be presented as well as concepts for an expanding role of large field and systemic radiation techniques will be presented. The current managed care climate has brought to the forefront some basic issues regarding the economic impact of palliative radiotherapy. Therefore, this course will present an analysis of radiotherapeutic and non-radiotherapeutic management of pain associated with bone metastases as well as discussion of the basic techniques of economic analyses. Techniques of costmininiization, cost-utility, cost-benefit, and cost-effective analyses and the appropriateness of each type of analyses will be presented. A discussion of which costs and benefits to include in the analyses will also be presented.