Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Spinal Tumors

Overview

Journal J Palliat Med

Specialty Critical Care

Date 2018 Dec 21

PMID 30570435

Authors

Theresa Williamson

Brice Painter

Elizabeth P Howell

C Rory Goodwin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Nearly 20% of cancer patients develop symptomatic spine metastases. Metastatic spine tumors are most commonly extradural tumors that grow quickly and often cause persistent pain, weakness, paresthesias, urinary/bowel dysfunction, and/or paralysis. Surgical intervention aims to achieve more effective pain management, preserve/restore neurological function, provide local tumor control, and stabilize the spinal column. The desired result of treatment is ultimately to improve a patient's quality of life. Neurosurgeons employ multiple decision frameworks and grading scales to assess the need and effectiveness of a variety of surgical interventions ranging from minimally to maximally invasive. Likewise, palliative care offers an array of treatment options that allows the best, individualized plan to be determined for a given patient. Therefore, crossfunctional collaboration between palliative care, radiation oncology, medical oncology, and neurosurgery is crucial both in the maximization of available treatment options and optimization of quality of life for patients.

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