• Jonathan N Sellin, Loyola V Gressot, Dima Suki, Eric G St Clair, Joshua Chern, Laurence D Rhines, Ian E McCutcheon, Ganesh Rao, and Claudio E Tatsui.
• *Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; ‡Department of Neurosurgery, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; §Department of Neurosurgery, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; ¶Pediatric Neurosurgery Associates, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Neurosurgery. 2015 Sep 1;77(3):386-93; discussion 393.

BackgroundMelanoma metastases to the spine remain a challenge for neurosurgeons.ObjectiveTo identify factors associated with survival in a series of patients who underwent spinal surgery for metastatic melanoma.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed all patients (n = 64) who received surgical intervention for melanoma metastases to the spine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center between July 1993 and March 2012.ResultsNo patients were excluded from the study, and vital status data were available for all patients. Median overall survival was 5.7 months (95% confidence interval, 2.7-28.7). On univariate survival analysis, diagnosis of spinal metastasis after prior diagnosis of systemic metastasis, higher total spinal disease burden (including but not exclusive to the operative site), presence of progressive systemic disease at the moment of spine surgery, and postoperative complications were associated with poorer overall survival, whereas the presence of only bone metastasis at the moment of surgery was associated with improved overall survival. On multivariate survival analysis, both progressive systemic disease at the moment of spine surgery and total spinal disease burden of ≥3 vertebral levels were significantly associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio, 6.00; 95% confidence interval, 3.19-11.28; P < .001; and hazard ratio, 2.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.62-5.07; P < .001, respectively).ConclusionOn multivariate analysis, involvement of ≥3 vertebral bodies and progressive systemic disease were associated with worse overall survival. Consideration of these factors should influence surgical decision making in this patient population.

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