Surgical Treatment of Spine Cancer

Last updated Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Summary

Overview

Edited By: Michael J. Lee, M.D.

The overall goal of surgical treatment of spinal cancer is to maintain quality of life for patients who have cancer involving the vertebral column, and in some cases, to remove the cancer in an attempt to cure it. In practical terms, this means:

• Relieve pain.
• Retain or restore the patient’s ability to walk.
• Maintain the patient’s bowel and bladder control and sexual function.
• Maintain movement and sensation in the patient’s arms and legs.
• Provide spinal stability and alignment, such as in the case of fractures.
• Serve as a curative step, such as in the removal of some cancerous tumors through resection or excision, if the cancer is limited to the spine only.

Surgery for Spine tumors; neoplasms of the spine; spine cancer; pathological fractions of the spine at the University of Washington

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