Defining Spine Cancer Pain Syndromes: A Systematic Review and Proposed Terminology

Authors

Markian Pahuta
Ilya Laufer
Sheng-Fu Larry Lo
Stefano Boriani
Charles Fisher
Nicolas Dea
Michael H Weber
Dean Chou
Arjun Sahgal
Laurence Rhines
Jeremy Reynolds
Aron Lazary
Alessandro Gasbarrinni
Jorrit-Jan Verlaan
Ziya Gokaslan
Chetan Bettegowda
Mohamed Sarraj
Ori Barzilai
AO Spine Knowledge Forum Tumor

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Journal

Global Spine Journal

Abstract

STUDY DESIGN: Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVES: Formalized terminology for pain experienced by spine cancer patients is lacking. The common descriptors of spine cancer pain as mechanical or non-mechanical is not exhaustive. Misdiagnosed spinal pain may lead to ineffective treatment recommendations for cancer patients.

METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of pain terminology that may be relevant to spinal oncology patients. We provide a comprehensive and unbiased summary of the existing evidence, not limited to the spine surgery literature, and subsequently consolidate these data into a practical, clinically relevant nomenclature for spine oncologists.

RESULTS: Our literature search identified 3515 unique citations. Through title and abstract screening, 3407 citations were excluded, resulting in 54 full-text citations for review. Pain in cancer patients is typically described as nociceptive pain (somatic vs visceral), neurologic pain and treatment related pain.

CONCLUSIONS: We consolidate the terminology used in the literature and consolidated into clinically relevant nomenclature of biologic tumor pain, mechanical pain, radicular pain, neuropathic pain, and treatment related pain. This review helps standardize terminology for cancer-related pain which may help clinicians identify pain generators.

Keywords

spinal metastasis, pain syndrome

DOI

10.1177/21925682241259686

PMID

39801118

PMCID

PMC11726517

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

1-12-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes