Life Expectancy and Metastatic Spine Scoring Systems: An Academic Institutional Experience.

Study Design: A retrospective data collection study with application of metastatic spine scoring systems.

Objectives: To apply the Tomita and revised Tokuhashi scoring systems to a surgical cohort at a single academic institution and analyze spine-related surgical morbidity and mortality rates.

Summary Of Background Data: Surgical management of metastatic spine patients requires tools that can accurately predict patient survival, as well as knowledge of morbidity and mortality rates.

Upfront boost Gamma Knife "leading-edge" radiosurgery to FLAIR MRI-defined tumor migration pathways in 174 patients with glioblastoma multiforme: a 15-year assessment of a novel therapy.

OBJECTIVE Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is composed of cells that migrate through the brain along predictable white matter pathways. Targeting white matter pathways adjacent to, and leading away from, the original contrast-enhancing tumor site (termed leading-edge radiosurgery [LERS]) with single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery as a boost to standard therapy could limit the spread of glioma cells and improve clinical outcomes. METHODS Between December 2000 and May 2016, after an initial diagnosis of GBM and prior to or during standard radiation therapy and carmustine or temozolomide chemotherapy, 174 patients treated with radiosurgery to the leading edge (LE) of tumor cell migration were reviewed.

Imaging characteristic analysis of metastatic spine lesions from breast, prostate, lung, and renal cell carcinomas for surgical planning: Osteolytic versus osteoblastic.

Background: Surgeons treating metastatic spine disease can use computed tomography (CT) imaging to determine whether lesions are osteolytic, osteoblastic, or mixed. This enables treatment that considers the structural integrity of the vertebral body (VB), which is impaired with lytic lesions but not blastic lesions. The authors analyzed CT imaging characteristics of spine metastasis from breast, lung, prostate, and renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) to determine the metastasis patterns of each of these common tumors.