Spinal Cord Tumors

Treatment

Mayo Clinic doctors have been treating spinal cord tumors and performing spinal tumor removal surgeries for more than 100 years. A leading center in the United States for neurosurgery, Mayo Clinic treats more than 1,000 people a year who have spinal cord tumors.

At Mayo Clinic, you have access to the latest treatment technology, including computer-assisted brain surgery, intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) and stereotactic radiosurgery. Mayo Clinic offers several treatment options.

Surgery

Mayo Clinic neurosurgeons have significant expertise and experience in performing spinal cord tumor removal surgeries, and offer the latest surgical techniques. They perform more than 3,700 neurosurgeries each year.

One of Mayo Clinic's strengths is the ability of nerve tissue analysts (neuropathologists) to rapidly examine tissue samples removed in surgery and report results almost instantly to surgeons. This helps surgeons make real-time, informed decisions about the amount of tissue to remove, so they can preserve as much surrounding healthy tissue as possible. There are several surgical options for spinal cord tumor removal, ranging from microsurgery to traditional tumor removal surgery.

Other treatments

Radiation therapy is often used as follow-up after surgery to eliminate remaining tumor cells, or it may be used to treat tumors that cannot be removed by surgery. Chemotherapy may be used before, during or after surgery and radiation therapy.

Tumors, surgery and radiation therapy can all cause swelling inside the spinal cord. You may be prescribed drugs called corticosteroids or steroids to reduce this swelling.

Monitoring and observation

Careful observation and periodic MRI scans over time may be appropriate for some people who have nongrowing or slow-growing noncancerous (benign) spinal cord tumors that produce few symptoms.

Read more about the treatment of spinal tumors on MayoClinic.com.