Some treatments work faster than others. It can also help strengthen the bones, reducing risk of breaking a bone weakened by the tumor's destructive effects. Aredia can also reduce the number of new areas of bone metastases. Plus, it can lower high blood calcium levels. The radiation is taken up by bone-making cells, and then gets delivered to cancer cells around the bone cells.
Pain relief follows.
If one or two or three of many sites of bone metastasis are producing significant pain, and your pain is otherwise under control, localized radiation can be given to those one to three sites to relieve the pain. If you had good relief to one of these products over several months, and the pain starts to come back, your doctor may suggest another injection. Aredia, which stops the loss of calcium from bone, is used to lower the high calcium level in the blood that can result from bone metastases.