Short-term outcomes after spinal surgery for metastatic breast cancer: A single-center analysis

Background: Advances in detection and breast cancer treatment lead to higher survival rates, with more patients living with spine metastases. Those surgeries are palliative; however, they can improve the quality of life (QOL). Objective: The aim of this study is to report pain and neurological function outcomes after surgery for spinal metastatic disease of breast cancer patients of a single institution. Complications were recorded. Materials and Methods: A retrospective, single-center, single-arm study was performed. Consecutive patients who underwent spinal surgery were included. We analyzed demographic, surgical, histopathological, and clinical data. Results: Seventeen women were included. Three patients (17.6%) did not present pre- and postoperative pain (n = 3), 6 (35.3%) had pain in both situations, and 8 (47.1%) were pain-free postoperatively (P = 0.013). Ten (58.8%) patients had preoperative deficits: 3 (30%) did not improve and 7 (70%) improved after surgery. Six cases (35.2%) did not present preoperative deficits and did not get worse (n = 6). The Frankel classification after the following time showed that 11 patients (64.7%) remained stable after surgery and 5 patients (29.4%) got better. A single patient (5.6%) had deterioration of strength. Two patients (11.7%) had intraoperative complications. Conclusions: Pain was significantly improved by surgery, with also a possibly positive effect on functionality. Considering the low complication rates, surgery is still a useful tool in the management of spinal metastases in breast cancer patients and may be related to better QOL.