Patients and methods
ONCOLOGY, DER
Patients meeting the following criteria were included into this trial: clinical diagnosis of OA of the knee and/or hand or finger joints, radiological proof of the diagnosis (plain radiographs), duration of anamnesis more than 3 months, and favorable general health status.The joints were assigned to one of the following groups:Standard dose group: total dose of 3.0 Gy applied in single fractions of 0.5 Gy twice a week, andExperimental dose group: total dose of 0.3 Gy applied in single fractions of 0.05 Gy twice a week.The dose applied was not known to the patients (single blinded).Follow-up examinations were scheduled 3 months and 1 year after the end of radiotherapy and were performed by a physical examination of the patient in the hospital.Primary endpoints were VAS (visual analogue scale) score, KOOS-PS [The trial protocol was approved by the Ethikkommission der Ärztekammer des Saarlandes Saarbrücken (No. 60/17 on 19 April 2017). Furthermore, it was approved by the expert committee of the DEGRO (German Society for Radiation Oncology). The research was designed and carried out in agreement with the Declaration of Helsinki in its current version.Further details of this trial protocol have been published in the first paper about this trial [