Spine Tumors

Spine Tumors Treatment 

A Tumour (also referred as Neoplasm), is an abnormal growth of tissues that can either be fluid-filled or in solid form. Tumours can be pre-cancerous (pre-malignant), or cancerous (malignant), or non-cancerous (benign). A Spinal Tumour is that growth which develops in or around the spinal cord or within the discs and bones of spine. Spinal tumours can lead to significant impairment of spinal cord and nerves, resulting in pain and neurological problems.

Classification of Spinal Tumours

Spinal Tumours can be classified into 3 main categories:

  • Vertebral Column Tumours – These occur in the vertebral column and are more common in younger adults. They grow from the disc or bones of the spine. They create pain that does not get better with rest and gets worse at night.
  • Intramedullary Tumours – These tumours often arise from glial cells and are known to grow from inside the individual nerves and spinal cord.
  • Intradural-extramedullary Tumours – These tumours grow within the spinal canal but outside the nerves and are usually benign and grow slowly.

How to ascertain that you have Spine Tumour?

Following are the most common signs & symptoms associated with spinal tumour:

  • Neurological problems like numbness or weakness in the arms or legs combined with pain in the neck and back.
  • Localised pain that gets severe when directly manipulated or compressed at the affected area of spine.
  • Pain that does not subside with rest and gets worse at night than during the daytime.
  • Continuous back pain along with other symptoms like appetite loss, weight loss, fever, vomiting and nausea.
  • Difficulty in walking and loss of bowel or bladder function.

Treatments for Spine Tumours

Most of the spinal tumours emanate from advanced stage cancer of other organs and therefore detailed evaluation is essential. In order to decide the line of treatment, your doctor will first do thorough examination that usually includes –

  • Explaining complete medical history.
  • Detailed physical and neurological examination.
  • Detailed radiographic studies of chest, spine and GI system is done in order to screen tumours.
  • MRI and CT Scan for examining the spine.
  • Biopsy is done by examining a small sample of tissue under microscope.

Depending upon your age, medical condition, location of tumour and stage of disease, your doctor will suggest you one of the following treatment options:

  • Monitoring– Sometimes, tumours get diagnosed even before they start causing symptoms. In such a case, your doctor will advise you to keep a watch on it by periodically getting evaluated through MRI/CT scan.
  • Surgery – With the advent of new surgical tools and techniques, doctors are now able to successfully remove even the most complex spinal tumours through minimally invasive surgical procedures.
  • Radiation Therapy– Radiations are used mostly to eradicate the remnants of tumours that persist after surgery and also to treat tumours that are inoperable or too risky to be operated. Stereotactic Radio Surgery (SRS) is done by focusing radiation beams on tumours with pinpoint accuracy and from various angles.
  • Chemotherapy– It is the use of drugs (usually given in cycles) to destroy cancer cells or to stop them from multiplying. Your doctor may give one or more combination of drugs either orally or inject them into blood vessel or muscles.

Spine Treatment