Need positive reason for palliative radiation

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 29, 2005

I am a Hospice nurse and see horrible things happening to my patients that believe radiation is going to help with the pain. I have yet to see this....Why do Doctors even suggest this. It seems like it gives them false hope. As I only see those that at the very end of the disease process, please help me see the other side where it works for the pt and they don't need hospice because they feel so good. ANYBODY see good things happen????? Please let me know.

Hellom Mazzi,:balloons:

Valid question. I have had many patients when given pallative radiation, the tumor would shrink enough and pain would abate. Also, the radiation tx would help thwart obstuctions and therefore offer much relief.

Patients with metastatic bone dz get some of the best relief with pallative radiation.

doodlemom · Sep 29, 2005

I am a Hospice nurse and see horrible things happening to my patients that believe radiation is going to help with the pain. I have yet to see this....Why do Doctors even suggest this. It seems like it gives them false hope. As I only see those that at the very end of the disease process, please help me see the other side where it works for the pt and they don't need hospice because they feel so good. ANYBODY see good things happen????? Please let me know.

Mazzi, I am also a hospice nurse and have seen things go both ways. I have had pt's with spinal compression and intestinal obstructions that have had good relief from XRT. These cases were in patients that had a few months left. I feel that these patients were given some quality of time that medication would not have given. On the other end of the spectrum, I recently had a ninety something year old patient with a huge sarcoma that the physician ordered XRT for so that the tumor would not fungate. The patient weighed about 90 pounds and the doctor ordered 15 treatments. She was eating about 50 % and was able to walk with a walker before the XRT. The patient became so weakened that she died before the treatment was finished. It broke my heart. I had spoken to the children before the treatment and had expressed my concerns but all they could hear was that the tumor was going to come through the skin if we didn't pursue XRT. Consequently, the radiation burn was so bad that the skin opened up and the tumor was exposed and oozing.

I think it just depends what kind of situation the patient is in.

Nitengale326 · Jul 18, 2006

I know I am late posting but I just found this thread.

Just last month, we had an end stage bone mets pt with a new lesion found on her spine. The lesion was causing cord compression and she was experiencing significant pain down her rt buttock and on into her rt foot. No meds were helping. After 2 rad txs she was up walking with her little ones in the hall way... had a bit of a limp ...which resolved with 2 more treatments... but she was so much more comfortable. She was able to see her littlest graduate from kindergarten and made it for another one's birthday before she passed.

In my opinion... it was worth every bit of effort for her to have those extra "good" days with her babies. I'm sure she would agree.

Hope this sheds some lite on the positives of palliative xrt.