Minimally invasive treatment provides fast pain relief for cancer patients

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/soir-mit031521.php

 

News Release 16-Mar-2021
Society of Interventional Radiology

 

A minimally invasive treatment for patients whose cancer has spread to their bones provides quick and sustained pain relief and improves quality of life, according to a new study to be presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting. The palliative treatment known as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is effective in providing relief in as little as three days, and the benefits last more than 12 months--a significant improvement over radiation treatment.

"Commonly used radiation treatments can take weeks to provide pain relief," said Jason R. Levy, MD, a vascular and interventional radiologist at Northside Hospital in Atlanta and lead researcher of the study. "A few weeks can represent a large portion of the remaining life in these patients, and RFA may be able to give them the best quality of life possible in the time they have left."

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