INITIAL HIGH DOSE IRRADIATION FOR METASTASES CAUSING SPINAL CORD COMPRESSION IN CHILDREN

¹ From the Department of Radiology (Division of Radiotherapy) of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, and from the Department of Radiology, of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
² From the Children's Cancer Research Foundation and from the Department of Pediatrics of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
³ From the Department of Radiology (Radiotherapy), the Massachusetts General Hospital, and from the Department of Radiology, of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

This report is too limited to evaluate the full efficacy of this approach to spinal cord compression. However, certain points might be emphasized: (1) Each patient in this small series had a neoplasm that had been demonstrated previously to be sensitive to the effects of irradiation; (2) no patient in this limited report exhibited a significant worsening of his clinical condition and required a decompression laminectomy; and (3) symptoms of moderately advanced spinal cord compression, as noted by a sensory loss and sphincter control loss, were reversible and function was regained.

It is our hope that by demonstrating the efficacy of this approach in these few patients,^* larger numbers of patients might be evaluated in greater detail, and that both the incidence of reversal of spinal cord compression by radiation therapy might be increased and the need for surgical decompression diminished in patients whose lesions are radioresponsive.

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