The spine is made up of bones called vertebrae and designed to provide three vital functions for the body; support, protection, and flexibility. The spine is one of the most frequent locations where medical professionals are seeing metastatic disease. Complications related to the spine are many and spinal cancer, though rare, it is a major concern. A spinal tumor is a cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign) growth that develops within or near the spinal cord or within the bones of the spine. Depending on the location and type of spinal tumor, various signs and symptoms can develop, especially as a tumor grows and impinges on your spinal cord or on the nerve roots, blood vessels or bones of your spine. Signs and symptoms may include back pain, loss of sensation or muscle weakness, especially in legs, difficulty in walking, decreased sensitivity to pain, heat and cold and loss of bowel or bladder function. Another symptom is paralysis that may occur in varying degrees and in different parts of the body, depending on which nerves are compressed.
A cancerous spinal tumor can threaten life and cause permanent disability. Unfortunately, these tumors are not preventable. However, with new treatments, spinal cancer can be managed effectively. It is prudent to note that among all the body tumors, nearly 5% involve spine tumors and most spine tumors are sporadic. Most common age group for primary spine tumor is 3-40 years and for secondary tumor is more than 60 years. Spine tumors are diagnosed with the help of MRI and CT scan. The biopsy is the gold standard test for diagnosis. Newer advances in spinal tumor treatment offer more options than ever before. Most vertebral body tumors are treated surgically by removing affected bone and stabilizing vertebral columns with rods and screws.
A tumor can be killed with heat and because the probes are cooled with water continuously, the area around is protected. Then the fracture is treated. Inflate balloons are used to treat the fracture and put cement at the affected area. The procedure takes about an hour. There’s a risk of the cement getting into a vein and traveling to other parts of the body, also infection and bleeding, but these risks are less than one or two percent. Of course, this doesn’t cure cancer but can manage it effectively. The idea is to get such patients out of the hospital quicker, get them back to their home life and try to make this metastatic cancer more of a chronic disease that we can manage since we can’t cure it. And people are back to their day-to-day activities practically immediately — something you don’t see with open spine surgery.
Treatment options for Spinal tumor:
Surgery: Surgical removal is the best option for many intramedullary and intradural-extramedullary tumors, yet large ependymomas at the end of the spine may be impossible to extricate from the many nerves in this area. Although non-cancerous tumors in the vertebrae can usually be completely removed, metastatic tumors are less likely to be operable. When a tumor has spread to the spine, radiation alone is usually the treatment of choice. However, research has found that surgery combined with radiation may be more effective at preventing loss of nerve function in people who are healthy enough to tolerate an operation and who have tumors that have spread from an unknown location, have some evidence of nerve injury, have tumors resistant to radiation or have recurrent tumors that were previously irradiated.
Standard radiation therapy and Stereotactic Radio surgery (SRS) which is a newer method, capable of delivering a high dose of precisely targeted radiation, is being studied for the treatment of spinal tumors. This is important because some tumors, benign or malignant, may reoccur. Usually, when the treatment period has ended, the symptoms clear up. Analgesics are given to control postoperative pain and cancer pain. Cancer pain may be difficult to control (e.g. break through pain). A pain management specialist may provide assistance if conventional drugs (e.g. pill, skin patch) do not provide relief. Any surgery, radiation treatment or chemotherapy can drain the patient nutritionally. Therefore, a proper diet is important to regain strength, lost weight, and a measure of health. Through exercise and modalities the patient can build strength, endurance and flexibility.
Source: http://www.india.com/lifestyle/spine-cancer-symptoms-and-treatment-options-to-manage-this-incurable-disease-2880207/
Comments
Post a Comment