Spinal Tumors
They can be divided into two categories: primary tumors of the spine, which are tumors that grow in the spine, such as osteoid osteoma, osteochondroma, hemangioma, multiple myeloma, etc.; and metastatic tumors of the spine, which are tumors that grow elsewhere and metastasize here, such as lung cancer, breast cancer, and other tumors that metastasize to the spine.
The vast majority of benign spinal tumors occur between the ages of 10 and 30, while the likelihood of malignant spinal tumors is greater in patients over the age of 30.
In the case of children, they are susceptible to spinal tumors such as osteochondroma, osteoid osteoma, and periosteal cell tumor.
Adults aged 10 to 30 years are susceptible to aneurysmal bone cysts and osteoblastoma.
Adults aged 20~40 are prone to giant cell tumor of bone.
Adults over 60 years of age are most susceptible to metastatic spine tumors because they are the most prevalent age for various malignant tumors.
Clinical manifestations
It is relatively insidious, and once obvious symptoms appear, it is often a long time since the onset of the disease. The common symptoms are as follows.
1. Pain
Back pain is the most common symptom in patients with spinal metastases, often preceding other neurological symptoms by weeks or months. Two types of back pain of different nature can be seen: tumor-related pain and mechanical pain.
Tumor-related pain manifests primarily as nocturnal or early morning pain and is usually relieved by activity during the day. This pain may be due to inflammatory mediators or tumor traction on the periosteum of the vertebral body. Definitive treatment of the tumor with radiation therapy or surgery may relieve this pain.
Mechanical pain arises from structural abnormalities of the spine, such as pathological compression fractures leading to instability of the spine. This pain is motion-related, as sitting or standing increases the longitudinal load on the spine, thus making the pain worse.
2. Fever
Benign tumors have normal body temperature, while malignant tumors often have hypothermia.
3.Mass
A large mass in the back is found by chance in life. Some people do not have pain or itch, but it is a little painful to press when they sleep.
4.Cachexia performance
The symptoms include anorexia, chronic nausea, constipation, weakness of limbs, depression, change of physical appearance, etc.
5.Local swelling
Superficial vein filling and skin height are often the manifestation of bone malignant tumor that has penetrated the bone cortex and entered the soft tissue and is growing rapidly.
6.Spinal cord and nerve damage
Feel numbness, pain and weakness in body. Compression or invasion of sympathetic nerve causes sweating dysfunction and dry and sweatless skin of lower limbs occurs.
Key points of diagnosis
Early diagnosis of spinal tumors is very important because the functional outcome depends on the neurological status at the time of consultation. Spinal metastases themselves are often asymptomatic and are often detected only during routine bone scans.
The presence of symptoms may be due to the following reasons.
(i) intrusion of a progressively larger mass within the vertebral body into the paravertebral soft tissues through the bony cortex.
(ii) compression or invasion of adjacent nerve roots.
(iii) destruction of the vertebral body secondary to pathologic fracture.
(iv) spinal instability following a pathological fracture, especially when complicated by osteolytic destruction of the posterior attachment.
⑤ Spinal cord compression.
Benign tumors generally develop slowly, have a long disease duration, and the patient is young, with no systemic symptoms except for pain and compression of nerves.
Malignant tumors, on the other hand, develop faster, have a shorter disease duration, show symptoms of nerve compression sooner, and show destructive bone lesions on X-ray, CT, and MRI, mostly as a single lesion, and blood sedimentation may increase.
Although spinal metastases also present destructive bone lesions, more than half of the patients have multiple spinal metastases, and most of them can be found as primary lesions on systemic examination or have a history of primary lesion surgery.
Preventive measures
There are no preventive measures specifically for spinal tumors, but we can refer to the three-level prevention model recommended by the World Health Organization for tumors.
1. Primary prevention
It is the most active and effective preventive measure, also known as etiological prevention. It is the most active and effective preventive measure, which is to promote healthy lifestyle and reduce cancer-causing factors. Do not smoke, smoking can lead to lung cancer and throat cancer. Do not drink alcohol. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to stomach and liver cancer. Do not eat high-fat, high-sugar and high-calorie diet and maintain normal weight. Do not eat moldy and spoiled food, and eat less pickled food. Minimize and avoid radioactive radiation, especially during adolescence. Avoid trauma, especially to the long epiphysis during adolescent development. To enhance physical exercise and strengthen physical fitness. Improve resistance to diseases and enhance immune function. Prevent viral infections. These are very important to prevent tumor.
2.Secondary prevention
It is to achieve early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment. For example, hard nodes or lumps, persistent indigestion with unexplained weight loss or low fever, etc. are early signs of cancer. These are early signs of cancer. If you feel numbness, pain and other symptoms, you should communicate with your doctor and have an early examination to confirm the diagnosis.
3.Tertiary prevention
That is, to provide active medical treatment for diagnosed cancer patients and strive for the best treatment effect. Even if the patient is at an advanced stage, we should try our best to help him alleviate the pain, improve the quality of life and prolong the survival period.