European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
-
Estimating the survival time of patients with spinal metastases based on pre-treatment parameters is important for the best choice of therapy. Following two previous studies, this sequel analyzes possible changes in the impact of various parameters and scoring systems and includes a comparison to the previous dataset for the purpose to find the most predictive parameters and scores for this patient group. ⋯ The Bauer modified score has shown consistent impact on predicting the remaining survival in patients with spinal metastases and is simultaneously simple in clinical use.
-
Clinical treatment of spinal metastasis is gaining in complexity while the underlying biology remains unknown. Insufficient biological understanding is due to a lack of suitable experimental animal models. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1) has been implicated in metastasis formation. Its role in spinal metastasis remains unclear. It was the aim to generate a reliable spinal metastasis model in mice and to investigate metastasis formation under ICAM1 depletion. ⋯ Applying a reliable animal model for spinal metastasis, ICAM1 depletion reduces spinal metastasis formation due to an organ-unspecific reduction of metastasis development.