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Thank you for your valuable response. Apologies if the last paragraph was misleading as we were referring to little being known in the context of published clinical literature. I whole heartedly agree that accumulated clinical experience of both oncologists and palliative medicine physicians is important to capture. Unfortunately, the vast majority of formal studies relating to cord compression in cancer have excluded this aspect of care thus far.
I would like to take issue with the final paragraph of this review.
A great deal is known about how people react when told they have paraplegia, incontinence and an average life expectancy of 12 weeks. For a clinical situation which most Oncologists encounter once or twice a week to suggest "little is known" is misleading.
It may be accurate to say there are few formal studies, and, indeed, hard to design given the nature of the condition. But to dismiss accumulated clinical experience for a lack of formal studies is regrettable.
Author's Reply Re: Metastatic spinal cord compression: diagnosis and management
Thank you for your valuable response. Apologies if the last paragraph was misleading as we were referring to little being known in the context of published clinical literature. I whole heartedly agree that accumulated clinical experience of both oncologists and palliative medicine physicians is important to capture. Unfortunately, the vast majority of formal studies relating to cord compression in cancer have excluded this aspect of care thus far.
Competing interests: No competing interests