Patients with metastatic bone disease can benefit from osteoplasty, according to researchers

Osteoplasty — a highly effective minimally invasive procedure to treat the painful effects of metastatic bone disease via the injection of bone cement to support weakened bones — provides immediate and substantial pain relief, according to as group of Italian researchers.

Interventional radiologists often couple osteoplasty with heat or cold treatments to kill tumor nerves, the investigators reported in a press release from the Society of Interventional Radiology 34th Annual Scientific Meeting.

“The immediate good clinical results observed in our patients should encourage more widespread application of this palliative interventional radiology treatment,” Giovanni C. Anselmetti, MD, interventional radiologist at the Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment in Turin, Italy, said in the press release.

However, “Osteoplasty is not a first-line treatment. It is a highly effective minimally invasive procedure that provides pain relief for patients not responding to conventional pain medication treatments,” Anselmetti added.

Metastatic bone disease is a painful condition that can develop in conjunction with cancers of the breast, bladder, kidney, lung or other organs. It occurs when cancer cells at an original site metastasize or travel to the bone. These metastases can become widespread throughout the skeletal system, he said in the press release.

Some bone metastases become painful because the tumor eats away at the bone (ie, ostelolysis), creating holes that make the bone thin and weak. If left untreated, bone metastases can eventually cause the bone to fracture and seriously affect patents’ quality of life. Each year, about 100,000 cases of bone metastasis are reported in the United States, according to the press release.

In the study, the average pain intensity score for patients based on the 11-point Visual Analog Scale dropped significantly from 8.8 +/1.4 to 1.8 +/2.1 within 24 hours of osteoplasty.

“These patients experienced immediate and substantial pain relief. They did not require pain medication during the time of follow-up, and there were no clinically significant complications,” Anselmetti said in the press release.

The investigators treated the pelvis, femur, sacrum, ribs, humerus, scapula, tibia, pubis and knee bones. Of 81 patients (69 women, 12 men), 64 (79%) were able to stop taking narcotic drugs for their pain and 43 (53%) could stop taking other pain medication, according to the press release.

Reference:
Anselmetti G., Chiara G, Liotti M, et al. Percutaneous osteoplasty performed in painful extraspinal osteolytic lesions — Personal experience in 81 patients treated for benign diseases and metastases. Presented at the Society of Inverventional Radiology 34th Annual Scientific Meeting. March 7-12, 2009. San Diego.