Elderly patients with painful bone metastases should be offered palliative radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: To investigate the efficacy of palliative radiotherapy (RT) in relieving metastatic bone pain in elderly patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The response to RT for palliation of metastatic bone pain was evaluated from a prospective database of 558 patients between 1999 and 2008. The pain scores and analgesic intake were used to calculate the response according to the International Bone Metastases Consensus Working Party palliative RT endpoints. Subgroup analyses for age and other demographic information were performed. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in the response rate in patients aged >or=65, >or=70, and >or=75 years compared with younger patients at 1, 2, or 3 months after RT. The response was found to be significantly related to the performance status. CONCLUSION: Age alone did not affect the response to palliative RT for bone metastases. Elderly patients should be referred for palliative RT for their painful bone metastases, regardless of age, because they receive equal benefit from the treatment.

Predicting benefit from fulvestrant in pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients.

Fulvestrant use in pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients is associated with variable response rates. This study aimed to characterize these responses and to develop a prediction model to identify those patients who could potentially derive the most clinical benefit. A nationwide review of patients enrolled in a Canadian compassionate use program from 1999 to 2006 was performed. Prior therapy with tamoxifen, steroidal, and nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitors was mandatory. The dependent variable in the analysis was the proportion of patients requiring chemotherapy at 3 months following the start of fulvestrant. General Linear Mixed modeling was used to identify factors significantly associated with this dependant variable and to subsequently develop the prediction model. Three hundred and five women received at least one dose of fulvestrant; 207 went on to receive chemotherapy (68%). Median duration of fulvestrant treatment was 4.1 months (range 0.8-63.1). Factors predictive of being chemotherapy free at 3 months included older age, no prior adjuvant hormonal therapy, and the absence of lung or brain metastases at the start of therapy. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis had an area under the curve of 0.70 (95% CI 0.60-0.80). This model was able to identify risk information that could be helpful in assessing which patients would most likely benefit from fulvestrant as an intervention with the objective being a delay in chemotherapy.

The role of plain radiographs in management of bone metastases.

Approximately 50% of patients with cancer will develop skeletal metastases, which often lead to significant pain. When a patient complains of pain, a bone scan and/or plain x-rays are ordered as investigations. X-rays necessitate a 1-cm diameter mass and 50% bone mineral loss at minimum for detection. Up to 40% of lesions will be unidentified by x-rays, presenting false-negative results. Computed tomography (CT) scans can recognize a bony metastatic lesion up to 6 months earlier than an x-ray. However, plain x-rays can also lead to rare false-positive results. We present a case with a false-positive result in a patient with lung cancer.

A multidisciplinary bone metastases clinic at Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre - A review of the experience from 1999 to 2005.

Our objective in this study was to review the experience of a one-stop multidisciplinary bone metastases clinic (BMC) that offers a coordinated multidisciplinary approach to the care of cancer patients with bone metastases in a tertiary cancer centre. Patients with symptomatic bone metastases were referred to BMC and assessed by a team of specialists in various disciplines - interventional radiology, orthopedic surgery, palliative medicine, and radiation oncology. At initial consultation, patient demographics, reasons for referral, and case disposition were recorded. From January 1999 to February 2005, a total of 272 patients with bone metastases were referred to the BMC. The median age was 65 years (range 28-95) and median KPS score at consultation was 60 (range 30-90). The majority of patients came from home (74%), while others came from a nursing home or the hospital (9%). Almost a third (28%) of patients had 2 or more reasons of referral, yielding a total of 354 reasons. The most common reason for referral was bone pain (42%), bone metastases (21%), high risk for pathological fracture (12%), and pathological fracture (10%). Of the 272 patients who received consultation, 40% received palliative radiotherapy, 19% received interventional surgery, 7% were referred to other support services such as palliative care, physiotherapy, and 7% had further investigation or imaging. A multidisciplinary clinic is useful for co-coordinating the management of bone metastatic disease in symptomatic patients.