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Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffA spinal tumor is a cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign) growth that develops within or near your spinal cord or within the bones of your spine. Although back pain is the most common indication of a spinal tumor, most back pain is associated with stress, strain and aging — not with a tumor.
In most areas of your body, noncancerous tumors aren't particularly worrisome. That's not necessarily the case with your spinal cord, where a spinal tumor or a growth of any kind can impinge on your nerves, leading to pain, neurological problems and sometimes paralysis.
A spinal tumor, whether cancerous or not, can threaten life and cause permanent disability. Yet advances in spinal tumor treatment offer more options than ever before.
- Brain and spinal tumors: Hope through research. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brainandspinaltumors/detail_brainandspinaltumors.htm#43233060. Accessed July 25, 2009.
- Welch WC, et al. Spinal cord tumors. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 25, 2009.
- Donthineni R. Diagnosis and staging of spine tumors. Orthopedic Clinics of North America. 2009;40:1.
- Schiff D. Clinical features and diagnosis of epidural spinal cord compression, including cauda equina syndrome. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 25, 2009.
- Detailed guide: Brain / CNS tumors in adults. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2_3x.asp?rnav=cridg&dt=3. Accessed July 25, 2009.
- DeAngelis LM. Tumors of the central nervous system and intracranial hypertension and hypotension. In: Goldman L, et al., eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/151491959-3/0/1492/741.html?tocnode=54620820&fromURL=741.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50204-4--cesec51_9020. Accessed July 25, 2009.
- Cole JS, et al. Metastatic epidural spinal cord compression. Lancet Neurology. 2008;7:459.
- Moynihan TJ (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 2, 2009.
