Dexamethasone for the Prevention of a Pain Flare After Palliative Radiation Therapy for Painful Bone Metastases: The Multicenter Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled 3-Armed Randomized Dutch DEXA Study.

Purpose: After radiation therapy for painful bone metastases, up to 44% of patients report a pain flare (PF). Our study compared 2 dose schedules of dexamethasone versus placebo to prevent PF.

Methods And Materials: This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial allocated patients with painful bone metastases from solid tumors randomly to receive 8 mg dexamethasone before radiation therapy followed by 3 daily doses (group A), 8 mg dexamethasone followed by 3 doses of placebo (group B), or 4 doses of placebo (group C).

Cone-beam computed tomography imaging in stereotactic body radiotherapy allows for more than target localization.

Image-guidance plays a crucial role in positioning the target during stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Despite current limitations, on-line kilo-voltage cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) also has the potential to identify changes in target volume geometry and the location of important organs at risk. These capabilities could be enhanced by further technical improvements in CBCT, including image quality.

Selection bias influences reported contralateral breast cancer incidence and survival in high risk non-BRCA1/2 patients.

Purpose: The results of studies comparing survival in familial and sporadic breast cancer (BC) are inconsistent. A higher incidence of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) has been reported in familial BC. Ascertainment bias may influence both the reported familial CBC and survival.