Table 3.

Comparison of the use of surgery and radiotherapy (RT) as primary treatment of spinal metastatic disease in 903 patients ^a

	n	Primary surgery	Primary RT	p-value	OR (95% CI)
Primary cancer diagnosis				0.006
Myeloma and Lymphoma	79	19	60		1
Breast	152	3	149	0.1	0.3 (0.1–1.5)
Prostate	260	11	249	0.008	0.2 (0.1–0.7)
Lung	179	7	172	< 0.001	0.1 (0.04–0.7)
Kidney	40	3	37	0.1	0.3 (0.07–1.4)
Other	193	15	178	0.003	0.2 (0.1–0.6)
Age				0.4
70+	433	26	40		1
50–69	400	25	375	0.2	1.6 (0.8–3.2)
19–49	70	7	63	0.4	1.7 (0.5–6.0)
Gender				0.03
Female	361	16	345		1
Male	542	42	500	0.03	2.5 (1.1–5.7)
Time from primary cancer diagnosis to treatment for SM b				0.6
Within one year	396	40	356		1
Between one and 5 years	279	11	268	0.2	0.6 (0.3–1.3)
6 years or more	204	5	199	0.08	0.4 (0.1–1.1)
Motor impairment c				< 0.001
Normal motor status (Frankel E)	607	11	596		1
Ambulating with minor motor deficit (Frankel D)	176	22	154	< 0.001	9 (4–21)
Non-ambulatory (Frankel A–C)	98	25	73	< 0.001	21 (9–50)
Multiplicity of spine metastases				< 0.001
One vertebra affected	142	26	116		1
Multiple vertebra	761	32	729	< 0.001	0.2 (0.1–0.4)

OR: odds ratio for choice of surgery vs. RT; 95% CI: 95% confidence interval.

^a Multiple binary logistic regression model.

^b Time from primary cancer diagnosis to treatment for SM was unknown for 24 patients.

^c Motor impairment was unknown for 22 patients.