Conditions: Bone Metastases
Keywords: Symptom Control
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 298
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This research is being done because is is not known if dexamethasone can prevent pain flare (their pain temporarily gets worse before it gets better) caused by the radiation used to treat painful bone metastases. Using dexamethasone to prevent pain like this has been studied in a few people and seems promising, but it is not clear if it can decrease the pain or prevent the pain flare before it happens.

Detailed description:
Previous research has shown that for patients who receive radiation therapy to treat their painful bone metastases, about 2 out of every 5 patients (about 40%) experience pain flare. The purpose of this study is to find out whether pain flare is prevented by receiving 8mg dexamethasone at least one hour prior to radiotherapy and once daily for the following 4 days. To do this, half of the patients in this study will get dexamethasone and the other half will receive a placebo (a substance that does not do anything). Using a placebo is the best way to see if a new therapy is effective and to clearly see the potential side effects and impact on quality of life.

Arms:
arm 1: 2 x 4 mg dexamethasone tablets taken once daily for 5 days arm 2: 2 placebo tablets taken once daily for 5 days

Interventions: intervention 1: Dexamethasone intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 2 x 4 mg dexamethasone (dex) tablets taken once daily for 5 days intervention 2: 2 placebo tablets taken once daily for 5 days

Protocol document: