A new article published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine examines stereotactic radiosurgery for spinal metastases with and without separation surgery.
The study includes 57 consecutive patients treated for spinal metastases between 2007 and 2011. The researchers used the Varian Trilogy Linear Accelerator to identify patients retrospectively. The patients underwent high-dose adjuvant sterotactic radiosurgery with or without the initial surgical decompression and instrumentation.
There were 69 lesions treated among the 57 patients. There were 48 patients who had the steroetactic radiosurgery alone, and 21 who had surgery before SRS. There was a single fracture delivered in 55 percent of the cases and hypofractioned scheme in 45 percent of the cases.
Here are five key findings from the study:
1. Renal cell, breast and lung carcinomas were the most common histological entities.
2. The local disease was unchanged or regressed for 91.3 percent of the patients.
3. The Frankel score improved, or was stable, in 98.6 percent of the cases.
4. The stereotactic radiosurgery can provide durable local radiographic disease control, either with surgery or without, and preserve or improve neural function.
5. SRS is a less-invasive alternative to radical spinal oncology resection and "appears to be effective regardless of tumor history without sacrificing durability or radiographic or clinical response," concluded the study authors.