Background/aim: This was a prespecified secondary analysis of a randomized trial, which analyzed quality of life (QOL), fatigue, and emotional distress following stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) versus conventional three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) as part of palliative management of painful spinal metastases.
Materials and methods: Fifty-five patients were enrolled in this single-institutional randomized exploratory phase II trial (NCT02358720). Participants were randomly assigned to receive SBRT (single-fraction 24 Gy) or 3DCRT (30 Gy/10 fractions). QOL (EORTC QLQ-BM22), fatigue (EORTC QLQ FA13), and emotional distress (QSC-R10) at the end of radiotherapy, along with 3- and 6-month follow-up were assessed.
Results: At all recorded time points, there were no significant QOL differences between cohorts, including painful sites, pain characteristics, functional impairment, or psychosocial aspects (p>0.05 for all). There were also no differences in all dimensions of fatigue between groups at each recorded time point (p>0.05 for all). Emotional distress was also similar at three (p=0.248) and six months (p=0.603).
Conclusion: Although these results demonstrate that SBRT does not cause worse QOL deteriorations compared to 3DCRT, larger randomized investigations are recommended to corroborate these findings.
Keywords: Spine metastases; fatigue; palliative radiotherapy; quality of life; stereotactic body radiation therapy.
Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.