Impact of local treatment on survival from hematological malignancies causing spinal cord compression

Various hematological malignancies, including multiple myeloma, plasmacytoma, aggressive lymphoma, and indolent lymphoma, rarely result in spinal cord compression.

Here, we retrospectively analyzed 32 patients with multiple myeloma (50%), plasmacytoma (13%), aggressive lymphoma (28%), and indolent lymphoma (9%), resulting in spinal cord compression (2004 and 2016). Patients averaged 57 years of age and presented with the indolent onset of spinal cord compression (91% of cases) resulting mostly in motor deficits (69%).

Local treatment modalities included radiotherapy (RT) (28%) alone, decompressive surgery (28%) alone, or decompressive surgery with consolidation RT (40%). The 1-year overall survival was 70%, and the progression-free survival frequency was 62%.

This study highlighted the importance of standardizing the indications for RT alone versus RT with surgery depending on the patient's underlying pathological diagnosis, neurological deficits, and radiological findings.