Objective: Advances in cancer treatment have led to an increased number of elderly patients. Cases of bone metastases in elderly patients are also increasing, with only few reports on their surgical treatment in the literature. In this study, we retrospectively examined cases of spinal metastasis in patients 80 years and older.

Material and methods: Nine cases (5 men and 4 women) were studied. The average age of patients was 82 (range: 80-84) years. As follow-up period comparison, a younger eleven cases (7 men and 4 women) group with an average age of 77.2 (range: 75-79) years was used.

Result: Performance status was recovered from 3.6 to 1.9 (P＜0.01), with 6 patients dead of disease (DOD) and 3 alive with disease (AWD). The mean follow-up period post-surgery was 300 (range: 71-880) days in DOD and 627 (range: 396-920) days in AWD patients. There was no significant difference in prognosis after spine surgery between the two groups.

Conclusion: Our surgical treatment was successful even in those older than 80 years old. Assuming that patients experience severe pain, have a low spinal instability neoplastic score, and no major organ metastasis, surgical intervention may be considered in even older patients.