The clinical application of permanent implantation of ¹²⁵1 seeds in treating metastatic bone pain

Objective: To make a preliminary investigation of the curative effect of ¹²⁵I seed implantation in treating bone pain caused by metastatic bone tumors. Methods: A total of 52 patients with metastatic bone tumors were enrolled in this study. CT-guided ¹²⁵I seed implantation therapy was employed in all patients. Results: On the second day after ¹²⁵I seed implantation, the sense of pain was significantly alleviated, and at 5-7 days after the treatment the distending pain became worse, and the pain gradually relieved at 10-30 days after the treatment. The curative effect evaluated at one month after ¹²⁵I seed implantation showed that the pain relief rates of grade I, grade I and grade H were 100%, 88.9% and 92.3% respectively, with a total effective rate being 93.7% (P < 0.05). The local pain remission rate, regardless the difference of pain degree, was higher in all patients, but the difference in pain relief rate was not significantly obvious between grade I group and grade H group (P = 0.369). Conclusion: Implantation of ¹²⁵I seeds can effectively relieve the bone pain caused by metastatic bone tumors; the treatment time is short, the pain relief is very obvious within short time, and the complications are fewer. This therapy is especially effective for osteolytic bone metastases. ¹²⁵I seed implantation can be used as an effective treatment when clinical conservative management can not satisfactorily control the pain. (authors)