AOSpine Knowledge Forum (KF) Tumor has created a multicenter international prospective registry for the management and outcome of metastatic spine tumors, referred to as “M-TRON”. The aim is to establish a global network of spine oncology centers that contributes to a common clinical database. The database serves as a research platform to enhance our understanding of metastatic spine tumors and its clinical management.

 

The Metastatic Tumor Research and Outcomes Network (MTRON) involves surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, and pathologists. Principal Investigator (PI) and AOSpine KF Tumor Chairperson, Charles Fisher, explains that by having everyone collect the same demographic, clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic variables, along with adverse events and health related quality of life outcomes, the network makes it possible to investigate prognostic factors and clinical outcomes. Due to the number of variables, you need to gather large volumes of data from hundreds of patients to draw meaningful conclusions.

 

MTRON is an open-ended registry allowing continuous data collection on metastatic spine tumor patients. In just over a year’s time, over 500 patients from 27 centers across the world have been enrolled (*).

 

“We will have a contemporary cohort to inform treatment decisions in this new era of personalized cancer care.”Fisher and Co-PI, Arjun Sahgal, are proud to say that MTRON will be the world’s largest international prospective registry collecting detailed information with respect to treatment outcomes for patients with spinal metastases. “These patients are very complex and non-uniform in terms of tumor, treatment, and patient characteristics,” Sahgal emphasizes. “Moreover, with all the advances in molecular profiles we will have a contemporary cohort to inform treatment decisions in this new era of personalized cancer care.”

 

At the frontiers of spine tumor research

Spine tumors pose difficult treatment decisions for oncologists and spine surgeons. Because of the complexity of oncology treatments and the advancements in the last decade, patients with tumors in the spinal column are starting to live longer. This makes it even more important to conduct prospective research that evaluates patient outcomes such as health related quality of life.

 

AOSpine KF Tumor Steering Committee member, Ilya Laufer, says that the wealth of data will allow scientists to design prospective and retrospective studies in order to optimize treatment indications and methods. Continuous analysis of the MTRON data will allow the AOSpine KF Tumor to promote treatment strategies that work well and discourage outdated and suboptimal practices. “The large volume of patients and the high quality of the data permit small- and large-scale analyses that may be adapted to the study question. Furthermore, we can identify challenging disease patterns in need of outcome “MTRON is AOSpine’s largest international research registry/study in terms of participating clinical centers.”improvement and propose treatment modifications in order to improve the outcome for these patients.”

 

Ilya Laufer and Associate Member Jorrit-Jan Verlaan are among the highest recruiters. Verlaan reminds of a range of older but still burning questions on optimal treatment strategies that are waiting to be answered. “For example, who to decompress, who to stabilize, who to irradiate? Furthermore, with a rising number of cases in MTRON, physicians may be able to refine their interventions to minimize patient demand.”

 

As more and more scientific questions are answered, MTRON will play an important role in improving and updating the AO Surgery Reference Spine Metastatic Tumor Module, published by authors Ilya Laufer, Jorrit-Jan Verlaan, and the AOSpine KF Tumor this year. “KF Tumor includes dynamic and dedicated physicians who contribute interesting and timely study questions. With MTRON serving as the data collection platform, the group will remain at the frontier of the spine oncology research,” Laufer concludes.

 

 

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• Study support is provided directly through AOSpine’s Research department
• The AOSpine MTRON study is executed with support from AOCID
• For more details about the study, please visit clinicaltrials.gov

 

 

 

​Arjun Sahgal speaking at the AOSpine Knowledge Forum Tumor Symposium, GSC2018, Singapore.Ilya Laufer at the AOSpine Knowledge Forum Tumor meeting in Singapore, May 2018.Jorrit-Jan Verlaan at the AOSpine Knowledge Forum Tumor meeting in Toronto, ON, Canada, May 2019.3 - 3<>

 

 

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The AOSpine Knowledge Forum Tumor Steering Committee and Associates gathered in Toronto, ON, Canada, May 2019.