[The evaluation of the effectiveness of half-body irradiation as palliative treatment in patients with multiple bone metastases].

The results of simplified method of hemibody irradiation of 23 patients with multiple painful bone metastases are presented. In all cases without proven bone metastases in skull and distal part of limbs, these parts of the body were excluded from irradiated field. The study comprised 25 cases of hemibody irradiation. The degree of pain relief and performance status improvement was assessed one and two months after treatment, depending on clinical and histopathological diagnosis and type of bone metastases. The best symptomatic results were obtained in the cases of multiple myelomas (100% of pain relief), prostate cancers (the average degree of 78%) and lung cancers (88%). Considering histopathological diagnosis, the best answer was found in multiple myeloma and squamous cell cancer (88%). Taking into account type of metastases the best result was obtained in the cases of osteolytic metastases (65%). No difference between upper and lower hemibody irradiation was found. The statistically significant correlation between pain relief, performance status improvement and decrease of analgetics use was found. The obtained results suggest that presented simplified form of hemibody irradiation is an effective symptomatic treatment modality in the cases with multiple painful bone metastases, giving an increase of life quality without significant radiation morbidity.