Abstract
This study examined changes in the quality of life (QOL), as well as the factors affecting QOL, among patients with painful spinal bone metastases without paralysis for 1 month after radiotherapy. Methods: This study included 79 participants (40 male and 39 female; median age, 65 (42–88) years) who had undergone radiotherapy for painful spinal bone metastases without paralysis. Patients’ age, sex, activities of daily living (Barthel index), pain, spinal instability (spinal instability neoplastic score [SINS]), and QOL (EORTC QLQ-C30) were investigated. Results: Having an unstable SINS score was a positive factor for global health status (p < 0.05). The improvement in activities of daily living and response to pain were positive factors for physical function (p < 0.05). A positive effect on emotional function was confirmed among female patients (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Engaging in rehabilitation along with radiotherapy leads to improvements in QOL for patients with spinal bone metastases.
Highlights
Bone metastases frequently occur in patients with advanced cancer [1,2]
This study examined the changes in quality of life (QOL) and the factors affecting QOL in patients with painful spinal bone metastases for 1 month following RT
activities of daily living (ADL) measurements were obtained for 65 patients in the improvement group and 14 patients in the no-improvement group
Summary
The spine is the most common site of bone metastasis [1,2,3,4], with approximately 60–70% of advanced cancer patients developing spinal metastases during disease progression. Bone metastases progress gradually and can cause skeletal-related events (SREs), including malignant spinal cord compression, vertebral body fractures, and radiotherapy (RT), leading to painful vertebral metastases [3,5,6,7,8]. Reports on patients with spinal bone metastases have been limited, SREs are known to significantly reduce QOL [9,15]. The main goal of treatment for patients with bone metastases is symptomatic pain relief and prolonged survival; maintaining or improving the patient’s QOL is important [18,19,20]
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