Radioterapia profiláctica para prevención de complicaciones en metástasis óseas de alto riesgo

Bone metastases are frequent in cancer patients and are a frequent cause of complications due to the structural damage they cause at bone level, generating complications called “skeletal-related events” (SREs), which lead to significant deterioration in patient quality of life.

In the management of bone metastases, one of the objectives is to reduce pain and manage complications when they have already occurred, but another objective, no less important, is the prevention of SREs. Regarding the prevention of SRE, there is extensive knowledge and literature that supports the use of surgery and systemic treatments such as hormone therapy, bisphosphonates, radiopharmaceuticals and other agents. However, radiotherapy also has a role in the prevention of SRE in cancer patients with bone metastases since it has been shown to produce a greater latency for the occurrence of an SRE and a lower hospitalization rate, which translates into lower treatment costs and better. quality of life for patients. For this reason, the objective of the present work is to comment on the indications and benefits of prophylactic radiotherapy in the context of SRE prevention.