Low-dose radiotherapy reduces osteoarticular pain

The radiation oncologist Marina Penaspecialist of Quirónsalud University Hospital Madridhas highlighted the scientific evidence that reveals that low dose radiotherapy can reduce pain by 80 percent in patients with osteoarticular pathology, which demonstrates its benefits beyond the cancer.

“Ionizing radiation in low doses modulates the immune system, has an anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative effect, with a reduction in the proliferation of fibroblasts. This allows a decrease in pain, slowing down the progression of the disease and inflammation, which allows us to recover mobility in our patients,” he explained.

This type of therapy allows treat localized osteoarthritis in the knee, shoulder or hands, pain due to epicondylitis, rotator cuff pathology or trochanteric bursitis, abnormal bone formation in hip prosthesis, and has also shown effectiveness in plantar fasciitis and calcaneal spurs with a response rate between 70 and 80 percent.

Dr. Peña has highlighted that radiotherapy, in addition to being effective, it is safe and fast. “The doses of ionizing radiation are very low in relation to what cancer patients receive. Furthermore, the treatments are outpatient, very short in duration, around 15 minutes, and painless with hardly any side effects,” he detailed.

However, he has specified that its use requires a prior study of the patient. “It is normally considered when the usual treatments have not worked,” he noted, adding that the area to be treated, nearby healthy organs, method of treatment administration, number of sessions necessary, age of the patient and possible pathologies that may interfere with the treatment are also assessed.

Peña has mentioned that there are other indications for radiotherapy in benign pathologies, such as the treatment of localized resistant infections. In this regard, he published in ‘Journal of Infectious Diseases‘ a clinical case in which radiation made it possible to resolve an encapsulated infection in the pelvis of a patient who did not respond to the usual antiparasitic treatments, avoiding a very complex surgery.

In his opinion, low-dose radiation “represents an effective and little-known therapeutic tool for some cases of benign pathology, especially in patients with persistent symptoms after conventional treatments.”