ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of dexamethasone in alleviating radiation-induced pain deterioration follow-ing palliative radiotherapy in patients with bone metastases from lung cancer. Methods:A total of 103 patients with bone metastases from lung cancer were randomly assigned into the observation group (n=51) and the control group (n=52). Dexamethasone (5 mg, iv) or placebo (saline, 1 mL) was administered after radiation. The incidence of pain deterionation in the two groups was compared. Re-sults:Of the 51 cases in observation group, 13 (25%) had pain deterioration. While 20 patients (38%) experienced aggravated pain in the control group (P=0.03). Conclusion:Dexamethasone alleviated pain deterioration in patients with bone metastases from lung can-cer following palliative radiotherapy, which needs to be confirmed by further studies.