Before your treatment team recommends surgery, they’ll consider every nonsurgical option, but surgery may be necessary. Sometimes metastatic tumors destroy bones in the spine or compress the spinal cord or nerves. This can cause back pain and injury to the spinal cord, leading to loss of function in muscles or nerves.
At Roswell Park, our neurosurgeons collaborate with our thoracic surgeons in order to approach the spine from every angle, allowing for a focused, minimally invasive approach.
Your team may recommend a surgical procedure to:
- Biopsy your tumor to determine the specific type
- Relieve pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots
- Restore spinal alignment and stability
- Treat a tumor that has not been, or cannot be, treated adequately with radiation therapy
When bony parts of the spine have to be removed along with the tumor, your surgeon may choose to place hardware in the spine to support the body and protect the spinal cord. The biomechanical devices act as an internal brace until the body has time to form its own bone and heal in that area. This process is called surgical stabilization or instrumented fusion.