Dr. Joyce Keyak, Ph.D. and her colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, have presented a new study that shows patients with breast cancer metastasizes to their spines may have a new option for treatment - injecting radioactive bone cement into the vertebral body.
Spinal metastases can cause pain and collapse of the vertebrae as well as neurological complications. Current treatment is generally a two step process with a surgery that uses bone cement injected to stabilize the spine and then radiation treatment to treat the tumor growth. If the new treatment works, not only does it limit the radiation to healthy tissues from external radiation treatment and stabilize the spine but it would also allow patients to have fewer medical visits, something that is always appreciated.
If successful, Dr. Keyak and her colleagues would combine the two treatment phases into one procedure by mixing a radioactive compound with the injected cement. A single procedure using this radioactive bone cement would provide structural reinforcement to the bone while simultaneously irradiating the tumor from within. Tumor treatment from within, known as brachytherapy, has been used for other types of cancer most notably prostate.
An abstract of the study is available online at http://www.ors.org/web/Media.asp.
Spinal metastases can cause pain and collapse of the vertebrae as well as neurological complications. Current treatment is generally a two step process with a surgery that uses bone cement injected to stabilize the spine and then radiation treatment to treat the tumor growth. If the new treatment works, not only does it limit the radiation to healthy tissues from external radiation treatment and stabilize the spine but it would also allow patients to have fewer medical visits, something that is always appreciated.
If successful, Dr. Keyak and her colleagues would combine the two treatment phases into one procedure by mixing a radioactive compound with the injected cement. A single procedure using this radioactive bone cement would provide structural reinforcement to the bone while simultaneously irradiating the tumor from within. Tumor treatment from within, known as brachytherapy, has been used for other types of cancer most notably prostate.
An abstract of the study is available online at http://www.ors.org/web/Media.asp.