Treatment of Solitary Painful Osseous Metastases with Radiotherapy, Cryoablation or Combined Therapy: Propensity Matching Analysis in 175 Patients

PURPOSE aim of this study was to identify outcomes in pain relief and quality of life in patients with a solitary painful osseous metastasis treated by radiotherapy, cryoablation or the combination using a propensity score matching study design. MATERIALS AND METHODS 175 patients with painful bone metastases were included in the study. Twenty-five of them underwent a radiation course (20 Gy in five daily fractions) 15 days after the cryoablation. These subjects were retrospectively matched by propensity analysis with a group of subjects treated by radiotherapy (125 subjects) and with a group treated byCryoablation (25 subjects). The pain relief in terms of complete response, rate of subjects requiring analgesics after treatments and the changes in self-rated quality of life were measured. Informed consent was obtained from the subject and the study was approved by the local Ethical Committee. RESULTS An higher proportion of subjects treated by cryoablation (32%) or cryoablation followed by RT (72%;) experienced a complete response compared with patients treated by radiotherapy alone (11.2%). After Bonferroni correction strategy, the addition of radiotherapy to cryoablation significantly improved the rate of complete response compared with cryoablation alone (p = 0.011) and this paralleled with an improved self-rated quality of life. Seventeen subjects (13.6%) of patients in the radiotherapy group, 9 (36%) in the cryoablation group, and 19 (76)% in the cryoablation- radiotherapy group did not require narcotic medications. CONCLUSIONS The addition of radiotherapy to cryoablation favorably impacts on perceived pain, with a favorable toxicity profile. However, our data should be interpreted with caution and could serve as a framework around which to design future trials.