Recent concepts in the management of thoracolumbar spine metastasis

Abstract

As patient with cancer live longer, spine metastasis is a growing problem. Untreated, it can cause pain, instability and neurologic deficit, which can severely alter the patient's ability and quality of life. When the diagnosis is established, scoring systems help the physician to best define the objective of treatment by evaluating the life expectancy. Except in rare circumstances, treatment is palliative. Over the past 2 decades, remarkable evolution in surgical techniques provided to patients valuable therapeutic options to perform circumferential decompression and stabilization of the affected level. More recently, minimally invasive techniques allowed a significant reduction of morbidity. The parallel development of stereotactic radiosurgery offers new therapeutic options in particular for patients ineligible for surgery.