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Topics:
Radiation Oncology • Palliation
How would you approach a patient with symptomatic spinal cord compression who is a poor surgical candidate and has a radio-resistant primary tumor?
Would you consider SBRT in this instance?
If so, then how would you approach this case if the patient's extent of disease was suboptimal for SBRT?
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution
Radiosurgical decompression of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression has been demonstrated (Ryu et al., PMID 20209611). In this report, significant decompression was achieved in 80% of the patients. This decompression is assessed in 2 months' MRI scan since radiosurgery takes time for tum...
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Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Community Practice
A definitive answer is difficult without understanding the severity and type of symptoms. Pain only would be quite different than if the patient has actively progressive myelopathy or circumferential tumor. Presumably, the diagnosis has been established as a radio-resistant tumor. Also, it woul...