Rehabilitation of the Cancer Patient With Skeletal Metastasis

Abstract Physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians function within a multidisciplinary team composed of medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, pain management physicians, and allied health professionals. The early diagnosis and treatment of patients presenting with skeletal metastatic disease is crucial to maintaining patient’s quality of life and ability to actively participate in their cancer treatment. Treatment may include chemotherapy, surgical intervention, radiation, activity modification, or pain medication and often includes a multimodal approach. Mirel’s criteria and PathFx are clinical tools that can be used to predict the risk of pathologic fracture and to provide survival estimates of patients presenting with metastatic bone tumor, respectively.