São Paulo Medical Journal ()

Natural history and surgical treatment of chordoma: a retrospective cohort study

  • Samuel Aguiar Júnior,
  • Wesley Pereira Andrade,
  • Glauco Baiocchi,
  • Gustavo Cardoso Guimarães,
  • Isabela Werneck Cunha,
  • Daniel Alvarez Estrada,
  • Sergio Hideki Suzuki,
  • Luiz Paulo Kowalski,
  • Ademar Lopes

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-3180.2014.1325628
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 132, no. 5
pp. 297 – 302

Abstract

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CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Chordoma is a rare tumor with a high risk of locoregional recurrences. The aim of this study was analyze the long-term results from treating this pathological condition.DESIGN AND SETTING: Cohort study in a single hospital in São Paulo, Brazil.METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study on 42 patients with chordoma who were treated at Hospital A. C. Camargo between 1980 and 2006. The hospital records were reviewed and a descriptive analysis was performed on the clinical-pathological variables. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and these were compared using the log-rank test.RESULTS: Nineteen patients were men and 23 were women. Twenty-five tumors (59.5%) were located in the sacrum, eleven (26.2%) in the skull base and six (14.3%) in the mobile spine. Surgery was performed on 28 patients (66.7%). The resection was considered to have negative margins in 14 cases and positive margins in 14 cases. The five-year overall survival (OS) was 45.4%. For surgical patients, the five-year OS was 64.3% (82.2% for negative margins and 51.9% for positive margins). In the inoperable group, OS was 37.7% at 24 months and 0% at five years.CONCLUSION: Complete resection is related to local control and definitively has a positive impact on long-term survival.

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