Postradiation sarcoma involving the spine. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Postradiation sarcomas arising many years after treatment of cancer are long term sequelae of therapy. We describe the clinical features, radiographic findings, and results of treatment in 13 patients with such sarcomas encountered over a 6-year period. Of these patients, 9 had bone sarcomas and the remaining 4 had paraspinal tumors arising from adjacent soft tissue and nerve. The primary cancer for which radiation was given included Hodgkin's disease (4 patients), breast cancer (2 patients), cervix cancer (2 patients), and a variety of others (5 patients). The latent interval to the occurrence of the second neoplasm varied from 6 to 30 years (median, 10 years) after treatment of the original tumor. Despite aggressive treatment, the overall prognosis was poor. The median survival was 8 months, with only 3 surviving more than 2 years. Although rare, postradiation sarcoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with late onset of spinal pain or neurological symptoms after clinical remission of an original cancer.

publication date

  • June 1, 1986

Research

keywords

  • Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced
  • Sarcoma
  • Spinal Neoplasms

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0022448657

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1227/00006123-198606000-00007

PubMed ID

  • 3736799

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 18

issue

  • 6