30-Day Mortality after Palliative Radiotherapy

Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) is a well-established treatment option for the palliation of symptoms related to advanced cancer. Common indications for PRT include pain and fracture prophylaxis from bone metastases, hemostasis, and neurological symptoms from spinal cord compression and/or brain metastases. Due to possible short term side effects and the fact that radiation often requires several weeks for full effect, many have cautioned its use in patients with a mortality estimate of < 30 days. Recently a large meta-analysis was published in the Green Journal which included 42 studies and 88,516 patients with advanced cancer who received PRT (Kutzko et al….

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