Radiofrequency ablation provided rapid and durable pain relief for patients with cancer and bone metastases

[snoraste]

possible for Pca?

"Researchers enrolled 218 cancer patients at 15 sites, who presented with breast, lung and kidney cancers and lytic metastasis. The 59 patients who opted to complete the EurolQol measurement reported improvement over the course of 12 months, and similar improvement was seen in the 14 patients who completed the EORTC QOL. Follow-up was made difficult because of the palliative nature of the study; over 80 patients dropped from the study due to procedure-unrelated death. Results showed that patients not only saw decreased pain but as a result had better quality-of-life metrics, such as physical and emotional functioning."

connect.sirweb.org/e-irq/pa...

[AlanMeyer]

Quality of life is important and palliative care is important in maintaining it. I recall reading a book by a palliative care specialist who argued that, when we get near the end of a slow acting disease like cancer, it can actually extend life a little longer and a with a lot better quality if we stop chasing aggressive treatments that have hard side effects and aren't likely to work and instead concentrate on making the best of what we have.

It's a hard choice to make. Sometimes an aggressive and difficult treatment can produce a big reward. Sometimes not. Whether to pursue more treatment is a personal choice and I wouldn't want to try to convince anyone to go one way or the other. We often say "Never give up!" but maybe we should sometimes see choosing palliative treatment not as giving up, but as making the best of things.

Of course radiation for pain doesn't exclude trying other treatments. Sometimes both are possible.

Alan