Background: Bone metastases cause oncology patients a number of distressing problems. In addition to inducing risky episodes of hypercalceamia, they are the major cause of bone fractures, and contribute to the development of tumour pains in two-thirds of all patients, which greatly impacts upon their quality of life. Clodronate (BONEFOS®) is one of a number of bisphosphonates that has been ušed for the treatment of hypercalceamia and osteolysis arising from malignant tumours for the past 20 years. Methods, aims: the aim of the study was to verify the effect of clodronate treatment (1 600 mg/day pero-rally) on the quality of life and the subjective perception of statě of health in Czech oncology patients using responses from EQ-5D (and particularly the VSA - visual analogue scale - level). 300 patients with either metastasised breast cancer or multiple myeloma were included in the study. Results: Clodronate treatment lasted for 9 months and yielded a significant improvement in overall patient mobility (p < 0.02) and the ability to carry out normál daily tasks (p < 0.001); it significantly reduced pains and/or other marked difficulties (p < 0.001) and also lowered the incidence of anxiety attacks or depressi-on (p < 0.001), when compared with the statě before treatment. Clodronate treatment was not shown to improve a patienťs ability to look after themselves (p = 0.19). Clodronate treatment did, however, signifi-cantly improve how patients subjectively perceived their health status on the VAS scale, when compared with the start of treatment (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The study confirmed that clodronate (BONEFOS®) treatment considerably improves the subjective perception of statě of health in oncology patients and significantly boosts their quality of life.

        Key words: bone metastases, clodronate, quality of life.