This study reports the national averages for patterns of palliative radiation therapy observed in the United States for patients treated in 1984-1985 and compares those patterns to the pertinent literature. The data were collected in 1984-1985 by the Patterns of Care Study Survey of Palliative Care conducted in 49 institutions selected to provide valid national averages for the practice patterns reported. Data were collected from 784 patient records selected from five "strata" of practice. Demographic data and process data were tabulated and national averages were calculated from the data. Four metastatic sites were selected, weight bearing bones (401), non-weight bearing bones (102), brain metastasis (224), and lung-mediastinum (57). The median patient age was 63 years, equally divided by sex. In 52% of patients this was the first metastasis. Common Karnofsky performance scores ranged from 40 to 80%. Lung, breast, and prostate were the most common primaries. Two-thirds of the patients were treated by linear accelerators, one-third by cobalt. The median number of fractions was 10, median dose 3000 cGy, median fraction size 300 cGy, and median treatment duration 15 days. The goal of treatment was relief of pain (98%) and return of function (30%) for weight bearing bones, for brain metastasis it was preservation of function (68%), pain relief (33%), and relief of compression (25%). All sites showed TDF values that ranged from 33-85, and a TDF of approximately 65 was most common for weight bearing bones and brain metastasis with no consistent pattern of TDF selection for the other sites. Compliance by strata of practice with work-up criteria was excellent with isolated poor compliance seen in several strata.