Radiology and Oncology

Musculoskeletal imaging and Trauma

There are two main reasons that bones receive radiotherapy: 1) an intentional delivery to bones to treat painful metastatic bone lesions or 2) their unavoidable inclusion into a radiation field which intends to treat an adjacent soft tissue neoplasm. In either case, the effects on the bone are varied and depend upon:

1. Dosage.
2. Quality of the x-ray beam.
3. Age of the patient.
4. Method of fractionation (fractionating treatment enables the physician to give the patient the necessary treatment dose while separating its delivery by a time interval in order to reduce toxic side effects to normal tissue).
5. Length of time of therapy.
6. Specific bone or bones involved.
7. Existence of trauma or infection at the site.