Impact of local treatment on survival from hematological malignancies causing spinal cord compression

Surg Neurol Int. 2020 Oct 21:11:352. doi: 10.25259/SNI_592_2020. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Background: Various hematological malignancies, including multiple myeloma, plasmacytoma, aggressive lymphoma, and indolent lymphoma, rarely result in spinal cord compression.

Methods: Here, we retrospectively analyzed 32 patients with multiple myeloma (50%), plasmacytoma (13%), aggressive lymphoma (28%), and indolent lymphoma (9%), resulting in spinal cord compression (2004 and 2016). Patients averaged 57 years of age and presented with the indolent onset of spinal cord compression (91% of cases) resulting mostly in motor deficits (69%).

Results: Local treatment modalities included radiotherapy (RT) (28%) alone, decompressive surgery (28%) alone, or decompressive surgery with consolidation RT (40%). The 1-year overall survival was 70%, and the progression-free survival frequency was 62%.

Conclusion: This study highlighted the importance of standardizing the indications for RT alone versus RT with surgery depending on the patient's underlying pathological diagnosis, neurological deficits, and radiological findings.

Keywords: Chemotherapy; Hematological malignancy; Radiotherapy; Spinal cord compression; Surgery.