INTRODUCTION
painful bone metastases, pain
ONCOLOGY, METASTASES, BONE METASTASES, PRIMARY TUMOR
Treatment options for patients with painful bone metastases nowadays are numerous, including radiotherapy, systemic therapy, surgery, and complete palliative and supportive care and pharmacotherapy. The complexity of choosing the optimal treatment approach for these patients in the context of efficiency, cost‐effectiveness, and quality of life is rising.For decades, radiotherapy has been considered the most effective therapeutic method for painful bone metastases. Based on the results of numerous studies and meta‐analyses, the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) provided a guideline in 2017. with the conclusion that the radiotherapy technique of high radiation dose delivered in one fraction (so‐called “single shoot” technique) is equally effective in controlling pain in bone metastases as fractionated radiation regimens. However, duration of pain response, bone stability, and remineralization happen to be inferior after single fraction than after multifraction radiotherapy, leading to significantly higher re‐irradiation rate in the single‐fraction group of patients.With the COVID‐19 outbreak, oncology departments throughout the world were challenged, especially when it comes to patients needing palliative radiotherapy. At that point, some authors suggested that palliative radiotherapy should be limited only to emergencies,Following guidelines during COVID‐19 pandemics, patients with painful bone metastases are recommended to undergo a simple technique, 8Gy single‐fraction radiotherapy in only one hospital visit, with telephone follow‐up whenever possible.Therefore, we set the goal to analyze the response to treatment concerning age, performance status (PS) of the patient, primary tumor, histopathology, and localization of metastases in the group of patients with painful bone metastases who underwent palliative, pain‐relieving, 8Gy “single shoot” radiotherapy. The analysis of these clinical parameters might give another perspective in selection of patients with painful bone metastases for an optimal palliative approach.