Many cancers that arise outside of the spine or spinal cord can travel to the area surrounding the spine. Tumors around the spinal bones (vertebrae) can cause pain and, on occasion, collapse of the vertebrae. These tumors also can affect the soft tissues and spaces surrounding the spine (the epidural space) and compress the spinal cord or the spinal nerves, resulting in pain, paralysis, sensory loss and/or loss of bowel or bladder control.
All of these areas of tumor spread are termed "metastatic disease of the spine" or "spinal metastases." Even though the cancer now affects the spine, the cells are still from the primary tumor (breast, lung, colon, etc.), and therefore the treatment of spinal metastases depends on the type of tumor, number of tumors and the amount of systemic disease.
Incidence
The spine is the most common location of metastatic disease and is involved in about 70 percent of patients who have cancer. However, only about 10 percent of those patients have symptoms from their spinal metastases. In spite of that, there are still about 18,000 new cases of spinal metastases diagnosed each year. For the patients who do develop symptoms, understanding the treatment options and choosing the most appropriate one can be very stressful and confusing.