Vertebral augmentation in metastatic cancer. Coloured X-ray of a section through the lumbar spine of a 62-year-old male patient undergoing vertebroplasty to repair compression fractures in the spine caused by cancer that has spread (metastasised) from the prostate. During the procedure, bone cement is injected through a small hole in the skin into the fractured vertebrae. Here, the acrylic trocars (tubes, white, left and right) through which the cement is injected, can be seen at the level of the L2 vertebral body.