Comparison of the efficacy of strontium-89 chloride in treating bone metastasis of lung, breast, and prostate cancers.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to comparatively evaluate the efficacy of strontium-89 chloride ( SrCl) in treating bone metastasis-associated pain in patients with lung, breast, or prostate cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The 126 patients with lung cancer included 88, 16, 15, 4, and 3 patients with adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, nonsmall cell carcinoma, mixed carcinoma, and small cell carcinoma, respectively, and the control group consisted of patients with breast (71 patients) or prostate cancer (49 patients) who underwent SrCl treatment during the same period. The treatment dose of SrCl was 2.22 MBq/kg.

RESULTS

The efficacy rate of treatment in the lung cancer group was 75.4%, compared to 95.0% in the control group. Approximately 67% of patients with lung cancer and bone metastases and 47% of control patients exhibited mild-to-moderate reductions of leukocyte and platelet counts 4 weeks after SrCl treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

SrCl can safely and effectively relieve bone pain caused by bone metastasis from lung cancer. However, its efficacy was lower in patients with lung cancer with bone metastasis than in those with breast or prostate cancer with bone metastasis, and its effects on the peripheral hemogram were also significantly stronger in the lung cancer group.