Pain relief of metastatic bone cancer by external radiation,samarium-153 and pamidronate

Objective To evaluate the role of external radiation, intravenous injection of samarium-153 and pamidronate in therapy of metastatic cancer bone-pain.Methods Fifty-six patients with metastatic bones were treated with comprehensive therapy in our department during the period from June 2001 to February,2004.External radiation dose was 30-60Gy/2-6 weeks.90mg pamidronate was intravenously given three times and samarium-153(1.0mci/kg)was once a month for three cycles after radiotherapy.Results Complete relief of bone paine was observed in 27cases(48.2%),partial relief in 26 cases(46.4%) and no effect in 3cases(5.35%).Total pain relief rate was 94.6%(53/56).Side-effects related to the therapy were leakopenia and thrombocytopenia(in 49 cases),common cold-like symptoms(22 cases).and transient bone pain progress (11 cases).Conclusion Combinative therapy of external radiation, intravenous injection samarium-153 and pamidronate is effective method to relieve metastatic cancer bone pain and increase the patients life quality.