Seed, soil, and spine stereotactic radiosurgery: A unique case of metastatic dissemination.

Stephen R Grant, Paul D Brown, Claudio E Tatsui, Amol J Ghia

Open access · greenAbstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Journal of radiosurgery and SBRT, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact, top 95% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 0 citations in OpenAlex.

External Beam Radiation Therapy for Pheochromocytoma and Non-Head and Neck Paraganglioma: A Single-Institution Experience and Systematic Review.Cancers · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Stephen R GrantDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

Paul D BrownDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

Claudio E TatsuiDepartment of Neurosurgery, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

Amol J GhiaDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center · USMayo Clinic · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A 52 year-old gentleman with metastatic pheochromocytoma received single fraction spine stereotactic radiosurgery (SSRS) to an isolated L3 metastasis. Two years later, he developed widespread osseous metastatic disease involving nearly every vertebral body level with the striking exception of the treated L3 vertebrae. The "seed and soil" hypothesis of metastatic dissemination was developed over a century ago and states that tumors cells (the "seed") preferentially grow in select host tissue microenvironments (the "soil"). The high-dose radiation delivered by SSRS may have altered the microenvironment "soil" of the treated L3 vertebrae, rendering it inhospitable to the growth of future metastases. With emerging evidence in support of high-dose stereotactic radiation for oligometastatic disease, there will likely be increasing opportunity to observe and understand treatment changes in the tissue microenvironment and how it relates to the potential for metastatic seeding.

Indexed as

metastasesSSRS

Identifiers

PMID32185094

PMCPMC7065899

OpenAlexW3013932288

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.