Hybrid Therapy for Metastatic Disease

Metastatic spine disease represents a complex clinical entity, requiring a multidisciplinary treatment team to formulate treatment plans that treat disease, palliate symptoms, and give patients the greatest quality-of-life. With the improvement in focused radiation technologies, the role of surgery has changed from a standalone treatment to an adjuvant supporting other treatment modalities. As patients within this population are often exceptionally frail, there has been increased emphasis on the smallest possible surgery to achieve the team's treatment goals. Surgeons have increasingly turned to more minimally invasive techniques for treating spinal metastases. The use of these procedures, called separation surgery, centers around the goal of decompressing the neural elements, creating or maintaining mechanical stability, and allowing enough room for high-dose radiation to minimize cord dose.