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CyberKnife® Patient Support Group > Ask the Doctors > Spine > spine tumor

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kimbar
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 2007
Total Posts : 3

Posted 7/19/2007 11:50 AM (GMT -8)

I recently sent a post regarding my father who has a spine tumor that mestasized from his lungs. The tumor was found after his legs began feeling weak, tingly and numb. his symptoms continued to worsen to the point where he could not walk at all. He underwent approx. 14 radiation treatments and is now taking Tarceva – for about one month now. In the last two weeks he has begun to get movement and feeling in his toes and now legs. We looked into cyberknife treatments but were informed that he is not a candidate because the cyberknife is used primarily to treat pain not neurological function. Either way, isn’t is used to directly treat the tumor and to decrease its size?

Jerome J. Spunberg, M.D.
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 2325

Posted 7/19/2007 4:22 PM (GMT -8)

Absolutely. You were not informed correctly. CK is used to shrink tumors for various reasons, including pain relief, but certainly not exclusively for that purpose. Shrinkage relieves pressure on critical structures such as a nerve or the spinal cord thereby resulting in improved neurologic function.

Jerome J. Spunberg, M.D., FACR, FACRO
Cyberknife Center Of Palm Beach
jspunberg@radiationoncologyinstitute.com
(561) 799-2828

Radiation Oncology Institute
10335 N. Military Trail, Suite C
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
(561) 624-1717

kimbar
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 2007
Total Posts : 3

Posted 7/20/2007 7:46 AM (GMT -8)

Thank you for your response Dr. Spunberg. I just got off the phone with a nurse at Saint Francis Hospital – I called to confirm their response as she previously spoke with my mother. She said that the physicians at Saint Francis reviewed my father’s file and did not think he was a candidate because they use ck to treat pain and not neurological function. She went on to say that since they could not improve his neurological function, and thus his quality of life, he was not a candidate. How would you respond to that?

Thanks,

Kimberly

radsrus
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 3691

Posted 7/20/2007 7:52 AM (GMT -8)

poppycock

Clinton A. Medbery, III, M.D.
St. Anthony Hospital Cyberknife Center
(405) 272-7311
buddy@swrads.org or cmedbery@coxinet.net

Clinton A. Medbery, III, M.D.
Southwest Radiation Oncology
1011 N. Dewey Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Jerome J. Spunberg, M.D.
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 2325

Posted 7/20/2007 9:07 AM (GMT -8)

Ditto

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