'Groundbreaking': Prophylactic Radiotherapy Ups Survival
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Radiotherapy for painful bone metastases is a standard of care, but a new study that looked at earlier use of the modality had an unexpected result. It showed that prophylactic radiotherapy given to patients with cancer and asymptomatic bone metastases not only reduces skeletal-related events and hospitalizations, but also offers a survival benefit. In the first study of its kind, almost 80 patients with more than five high-risk metastases were randomly assigned to receive either prophylactic radiotherapy or standard care.
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@pratibha The patients who underwent radiotherapy showed a reduction in a composite of skeletal-related events, and none had to be admitted to hospital. But the results also showed a 55% improvement in overall survival compared with those in the control group, giving these patients an additional 8 months of life.