Surgery on large metastases (and my own experience)

In reviewing various sources, the current thinking seems to be that surgically-removing large metastases (in addition to radiating them) *might* provide some benefits for oligometastatic prostate cancer, but the surgical risk -- especially near the spine or vital organs -- outweighs the uncertain benefits.

Did anyone else here have a large metastasis surgically removed or debulked?

In my case, the tumour was rapidly compressing my spine, and I was at imminent risk of permanent paraplegia (at best) or even needing assistance with autonomic functions. There was a non-trivial risk of death, but we really had no choice: we made the decision instantly, and I was on the operating table within a few hours.

So that means I'm a bit of a guinea pig. One of my oncology residents suggested that the debulking surgery on my spinal tumour (in addition to the post-op SBRT) might have improved my outcomes, but we really don't know, and it's not something you want to experiment with willy-nilly. The surgery was a forced-move for me, and now that it's in my rearview mirror and I know I didn't die on the operating table or end up permanently paraplegic or on a ventilator, I'm hoping to reap some benefits.

A bit of research also showed me that I lucked out with my orthopedic surgeon: while he's Canadian, he trained in the highly-elite Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Spine Surgery Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, so I had a world-class surgeon at a few hours' notice just as a fluke (I guess he was the one on call that night when he rushed in to operate on me in the wee hours).