Background: Radiosurgery is a special treatment method that employs highly focused radiation to destroy tumors with high precision in a single session. A broad base of scientific evidence already exists for the radiosurgical treatment of brain metastases. Recent advances in medical technology now allow radiosurgery to be extended to the spine as well.
Methods: Selective literature review based on a PubMed search using the search terms stereotaxis, radiosurgery, stereotactic radiotherapy, accuracy, quality assurance, spine, spine metastasis, pain, Novalis, CyberKnife, Synergy, and robotics. We also present and analyze our own data as an illustration of the application of spinal radiosurgery.
Results: The literature search identified 20 scientific original publications and one recent review. The data indicate that, within the specific constraints of the method, radiosurgery can arrest the growth of up to 96% of spinal metastases. Durable pain relief can be achieved in patients with tumor-associated pain syndromes. The morbidity of spinal radiosurgery is low, with a less than 1% risk of myelopathy.
Conclusions: Spinal radiosurgery is an independent, essentially noninvasive method of treatment. Different types of radiosurgical treatment apparatus are available. For properly selected patients, radiosurgery offers a good chance of therapeutic success with relatively rare complications.
Keywords: cancer treatment; medical technology; quality of life; radiation therapy; surgery.