Effectiveness of low-dose radiation therapy on symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis

We read with interest the milestone work in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases by Mahler and colleagues1 on the effectiveness of low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT) on symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). The authors have conducted a series of studies to investigate the effects of LDRT on OA, which compensate the lack of high-level evidence in the medical literature, and inevitably forcing us to re-examine the true effectiveness of LDRT on OA in real-world clinical practice.1–3 The group should be applauded for their accomplishments. In this well-designed and well-conducted randomised, double-blinded, sham-controlled trial, they found no substantial beneficial effect on symptoms and …