Spinal Tumor
(Benign and Malignant)

Back pain, especially in the middle/lower back, is the most common symptom of both noncancerous (benign) and cancerous (malignant) spinal tumors.

The pain will probably be worse at night or morning and may spread beyond your spine to your hips, legs, feet or arms and might become more severe over time in spite of treatment.

Depending on the location and type of the tumor, other signs and symptoms can develop, especially as a malignant tumor grows and impinges on your spinal cord or on the nerve roots, blood vessels or bones of your spine. These signs and symptoms include:

• Loss of sensation or muscle weakness, especially in your legs
• Difficulty walking, sometimes leading to falls
• Decreased sensitivity to pain, heat and cold
• Loss of bowel or bladder function
• Paralysis that may occur in varying degrees and in different parts of your body, depending on which nerves are compressed
• Scoliosis or other spinal deformity resulting from a large but benign tumor

Spinal tumors progress at different rates. Generally, malignant tumors grow quickly, whereas benign tumors may develop slowly, at times existing for years before causing problems.

What are Some Causes of a Spinal Tumor?

Spinal tumor origins are a mystery. Although scientists are learning more about the genetic and environmental factors involved in the development of many kinds of tumors, spinal tumors are still a relatively unknown quantity.

They often contain a number of abnormal genes, but in many cases, researchers don't know what causes these genetic alterations.

They do know that in some cases, spinal cord tumors run in families and are associated with familial cancer syndromes such as:

• Neurofibromatosis: 2 In this hereditary disorder, benign tumors develop on or near the nerves related to hearing, leading to progressive hearing loss in one or both ears.

  Some people with neurofibromatosis 2 also develop tumors in the arachnoid layer of the spinal cord or in the supporting glial cells.

• Von Hippel-Lindau Disease: This rare, multisystem disorder is associated with benign blood vessel tumors (hemangioblastomas) in the brain, retina and spinal cord and with other types of tumors in the kidneys or adrenal glands.

It's also known that spinal cord lymphomas, cancers that affect lymphocytes, a type of immune cell, are more common in people whose immune systems are compromised by medications or disease.

Most back pain isn't the result of a spinal tumor. But because early diagnosis and treatment are very important for many back problems, see your doctor if you have persistent back pain that isn't activity related, that gets worse at night or that isn't relieved by over-the-counter analgesics.

Signs and symptoms such as progressive muscle weakness or numbness in your legs and changes in bowel or bladder function require immediate medical attention.

What are Some Treatments for a Spinal Tumor?

Generally, the goal in treating a spinal tumor is to eliminate the tumor completely, but this aim is complicated by the risk of permanent damage to the surrounding nerves.

Doctors must also consider or take into account your age, overall health, type of tumor and whether it is primary or has spread to the spine.

Treatment options for most spinal tumors include:

• Monitoring: Sometimes spinal tumors are discovered before they cause symptoms, often when you're being evaluated for another condition.

  If small tumors are benign and not growing or pressing on surrounding tissues, watching them carefully may be the only treatment that's needed.

  This is especially true in older adults for whom surgery or radiation therapy may pose special risks.

  If you decide not to treat a spinal tumor, your doctor will recommend periodic scans to monitor the tumor's growth.

• Surgery: This is most often the first step in treating tumors that can be removed with an acceptable risk of nerve damage.

  Newer techniques and instruments allow neurosurgeons to reach tumors that were at one time inaccessible. The high-powered microscopes used in microsurgery, for instance, make it easier to distinguish tumors from healthy tissue.

  Doctors also can test different nerves during surgery with electrodes, thus minimizing neurological damage. And in some instances, they might use sound waves to break up tumors and remove the remaining fragments.

  Even with the advances in treatment, not all tumors can be removed completely.

  Surgical removal is the best option for many intramedullary and intradural-extramedullary tumors, yet large ependymomas at the end of the spine may be impossible to extricate from the many nerves in this area.

  And although benign tumors in the vertebrae can usually be completely removed, metastatic tumors are less likely to be operable.

  When a tumor has spread to the spine, radiation is usually the treatment of choice. In these cases, surgery is reserved for people who don't have a diagnosis, who have tumors resistant to radiation or who have recurrent tumors that were previously irradiated.

  However, some research has shown that some people with metastatic disease to the spine that has caused weakness or other neurological problems may be most effectively treated with a combination of surgery and radiation.

  Recovery from spinal surgery may take weeks or months, depending on the procedure, and you may experience a temporary loss of sensation or other complications, including bleeding and damage to nerve tissue.

• Chemotherapy: A standard treatment for many types of cancer, chemotherapy hasn't proved beneficial for most spinal tumors. However, there may be exceptions.

  Your doctor can determine whether chemotherapy might be beneficial for you, either alone or in combination with radiation therapy.

• Other Treatments: Because surgery and radiation therapy as well as tumors themselves can cause inflammation inside the spinal cord, doctors sometimes prescribe corticosteroids to reduce the swelling, either following surgery or during radiation treatments.

  Although corticosteroids reduce inflammation, they are usually used for short periods only to avoid such serious side effects as osteoporosis, high blood pressure, diabetes and an increased susceptibility to infection.

What are Some Lifestyle and Home Remedies?

If you have a spinal tumor, ask your doctor before taking any natural supplement. Try to:

• Eat a healthy diet A healthy diet emphasizing raw, uncooked, fresh fruits and vegetables which are high in antioxidants , and whole grains can help you control your weight and maintain your overall optimal health.

  However, there's no special diet effective for treating a spinal tumor. Researchers are finding out that antioxidant-rich non-inflammatory foods can help decrease inflammation in your joints, which, in turn decreases pain.

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