How Radiation Therapy Reduces Bone Cancer Pain

Using an experimental model with mice, researchers have determined that radiation therapy decreases painful behavior and increases limb use, which is associated with a decrease in bone destruction and tumor burden. Their findings were reported in the February 2004 issue of Radiation Research.

While doctors administer radiation therapy to relieve bone cancer pain in more than 100,000 patients each year in the U.S. alone, they have not known why the treatment works. Researchers demonstrated that mice treated with a localized single radiation dose had significantly less bone destruction and tumor burden, which other studies have shown to be associated with pain reduction.

"Future use of the experimental system described in this research should help accelerate the pace of discovery around these mechanisms and help efforts to reduce the burden of pain suffered by bone cancer patients,” said Denis Clohisy, M.D., professor of orthopedic surgery in the Medical School and Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota (Duluth, USA).




Related Links:
U. Minnesota