Improved methods of diagnosis have indicated that chordoma more frequently affects the central nervous system than was previously suspected. For example, in a large neurosurgical service, one can now expect to see one or two cases a year. The world literature in 1960, derived mostly from isolated case reports, mentioned 548 cases of chordoma in the following locations: 240 intracranial, 81 vert...

Sacrococcygeal chordoma is a malignant tumour originating from remnants of the notochord. Chordomas are slow-growing tumours whose symptoms develop insidiously. We present the case of a 72-year-old woman with a 6-month history of genital pain radiating to the perianal area and exacerbating when she was in a sitting position. MRI and PET studies revealed a large mass in the sacrococcygeal region...

CLINICAL SCENARIO During routine staging work-up for a left breast mass, a 68-year-old woman complained of dysphagia and dysphonia. During further investigations, a left-sided lesion at the foramen magnum was observed on brain imaging. Both lesions were biopsied and showed a classical chordoma. MANAGEMENT The skull-base lesion and the breast lesion were surgically resected, and adjuvant radio...

Chordomas are tumors that arise at vertebral bodies and the base of the skull. Although rare in incidence, they are deadly owing to slow growth and a lack of effective therapeutic options. In this study, we addressed the need for chordoma cell systems that can be used to identify therapeutic targets and empower testing of candidate pharmacologic drugs. Eight human chordoma cell lines that we es...

INTRODUCTION Chordomas are rare tumors of the skeletal system that arise from an intra-osseous benign precursor of notochordal cells. They are mainly locally aggressive. However, metastases to other sites, including the humeri, resulting in pathological fractures have been reported. We report the case of a patient with a metastatic chordoma that produced a pathologic fracture of the humerus. ...

Chordoma is a rare malignant tumor that recapitulates the notochord phenotype and is thought to derive from notochord remnants not correctly regressed during development. Apoptosis is necessary for the proper notochord development in vertebrates, and the apoptotic pathway mediated by Fas and Fasl has been demonstrated to be involved in notochord cells regression. This study was conducted to inv...

background: despite the relative success of surgical resection followed by proton, proton/photon, or conventional radiotherapy in terms of recurrence-free survival, chordomas are still associated with a high rate of recurrence. to our knowledge there are only very few reported cases of this rare tumor detected by f-18 fdg-pet. materials and methods: in this case we show the significance of f-18...

The present case illustrates the unexpected occurrence of intradural chordomas that were simultaneously discovered in cranial and spinal locations. A 63-year-old female presented with weakness in the left upper extremity. The patient visited a local doctor and underwent brain computerized tomography (CT). CT revealed a brain tumor, and she was referred to our hospital. Brain magnetic resonance ...

Two cases of sacral chordoma in a 7-year, 9-month-old boy and a 3-year, 4-month-old boy are presented. In addition to the typical histology of conventional chordoma, both tumors showed the less differentiated sarcomatoid appearance of atypical chordoma in the major portion. Immunohistochemically, in both cases neoplastic cells in areas of conventional as well as atypical chordoma were positive ...

PURPOSES To review in the literature, all the epidemiological, clinical, radiological, histological and therapeutic data regarding chordomas as well as various notochordal entities: ecchordosis physaliphora, intradural and intraparenchymatous chordomas, benign notochordal cell tumors, parachordomas and extra-axial chordomas. To identify different types of chordomas, including familial forms, as...