Inclusion | Patients of 18 years or older |
Uncomplicated painful bone metastases | |
Primary malignancy is a solid tumor | |
Pain intensity on a numeric rating scale of 2-8 | |
No immediately expected change in the analgesic regimen. | |
Indication for single or short course radiotherapy | |
Able to fill out Dutch questionnaires | |
Able to follow instructions | |
Informed consent provided | |
Exclusion | Patients with haematological malignancy |
Multiple sites to be irradiated | |
Patients who have been treated before with palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases to the same bony localisation | |
Current use of steroids (dexamethasone, prednisolone or other), use up to less than a week before randomization or expected use within 2 weeks after start of radiotherapy (e.g., as part of anti-emetic regimen for chemotherapy) | |
Contraindications for the use of dexamethasone (to be judged by the radiation-oncologist) | |
Long-term schedule radiotherapy (>6 fractions) | |
Life expectancy shorter than 8 weeks | |
Karnofsky performance score of 40 or less |