Pain palliation with rhenium-186 HEDP in breast cancer patients with disseminated bone metastases.

Purpose: For patients with metastatic prostate cancer, first results have shown that rhenium-186 (Re-186) hydroxyethylidene diphosphonate (HEDP) is efficient in pain palliation of disseminated bone metastases. The aim of this study was to determine whether significant pain reduction can also be achieved in breast cancer patients with Re-186 HEDP.

Methods: Thirty patients with breast cancer who had multifocal painful bone metastases received a total of 38 intravenous Re-186 HEDP injections.

[Pain therapy in multiple bone metastases in breast carcinoma with rhenium 186 HEDP].

Therapeutic means for patients with disseminated painful bone metastases in breast cancer are strongly limited. There is a big need of an effective and well tolerated therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of rhenium-186 HEDP for pain palliation in patients with bone metastases in breast cancer.

Rhenium-186 HEDP: palliative radionuclide therapy of painful bone metastases. Preliminary results.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of rhenium-186 hydroxyethyledine diphosphonate (Re-186 HEDP) for pain relief in patients with disseminated bone metastases primarily from prostate or breast cancer. Up to now, 44 patients taking analgesics were entered in this study and received one or more injections of 1295 MBq of Re-186 HEDP. An analgesic effect of more than 20%, evaluated by using a verbal rating scale (VRS) and a visual analogous scale (VAS), was defined as significant and could be achieved in 60% of these patients.