Have melanoma on 11th vertebra. Side effects and prognosis of radiation?
Patient: My step-father has melanoma on his 11th vertebra. He is 85 years old. He will be having radiation on it next week & I want to know about side effects & prognosis , etc. He also has a golf ball sized melanoma on his lung , which is inoperable & they are not doing radiation on that for some reason. I want to know what his quality of life will be & how long does he have & how bad will he get towards the end. Thank you. Janice Doctor: Your stepfather has spine metastasis from melanoma which is an uncommon event, it can pose a complex management problem. Pain is the most common presenting symptom. The radiographic diagnosis is generally made easily by plain radiographs, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, with the most frequent finding being a destructive lesion. Bone scan gave false-negative results 15% of the time. The median survival is about 4 months.It is concluded that melanoma metastatic to the spine represents a late event in the evolution of this illness. Palliation should be the goal of treatment, but symptom management should be individualized, bearing in mind the short anticipated survival of these patients.Regards and take care