Franciscan St. James Physician Pioneers New Procedure for Cases Where Cancer Spread to the Spine

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL, June 6, 2012 | Dr. Amar Shah, a Franciscan St. James Health interventional radiologist, completed a new spinal tumor treatment to provide bone stability and reduce pain for a patient whose cancer spread to the spine.

This is the first time this treatment, Radio Frequency Spinal Ablation (RFA), has been performed for painful spinal metastatic disease in the south and southwest suburbs. In fact, it has been performed just 42 times previously in the entire U.S.

When cancer cells spread to other organs or body structures, it is said to have metastasized. Spinal metastasis is common in patients with cancer. The spine is the third most common site for cancer cells to metastasize, following the lung and the liver. It can cause symptoms ranging from back pain to bowel/bladder problems and paralysis.

According to the American Cancer Society, when a cancer travels to the spine from other parts of the body, it can weaken the bones often resulting in fractures. Spinal metastatic disease can hamper a patients ability to maintain your regular activities and lifestyle, and as those tumors grow the may press on or dislodge the adjacent spinal cord.

“RFA therapy delivers more rapid pain relief and improves the quality of life for late stage cancer patients,” Dr. Shah said. “While other treatments, such as External Beam Radiation, require up to six weeks of treatment, RFA can provide pain relief in a single treatment.”

While RFA therapy can treat end-stage cancer patients who seek pain control and quality of life, it can also be used for patients seeking a cure of their primary cancers. It can potentially achieve more rapid pain relief, enabling the patient to stay on chemotherapy and focus on battling their primary cancer.

“RFA therapy can benefit patients who must stay on chemotherapy to fight their primary cancers,” Dr. Shah said. “It will preclude the need interrupt chemotherapy when undergoing radiation due to systemic toxicity.”

Radiation oncologists often have trouble getting patients in pain to lay still for radiation therapy. When that severe pain is successfully addressed, patients are more comfortable and more able to be successfully treated.

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Media contact:      Michael Shepherd

                              708-756-1000, ext. 3455
Michael.Shepherd@franciscanalliance.org