What is chordoma?

Chordoma is a rare type of bone tumor that develops along the spine or at the base of the skull. Chordomas represent less than one percent of all central nervous system tumors and between two percent and four percent of all primary bone tumors. In many cases, chordoma tumors can be effectively treated with surgery, but have a high level of recurrence and a high risk of metastases.

Chordomas develop in the body called Neuraxe, so -called due to its importance for the central nervous system. During fetal development, neuraxe contains structures that help regulate the development of this system. In particular, the Notochord structure is instrumental during the development of the fetal central nervous system. Notochord develops into the vertebral column during the growth of the fetus, but some remnants of the Notochord cells remain in the body. These residual Notochord cells are a place where a chordoma tumor can develop. On two places along the backbone chord. This is a clivus, on the base of the skull and an areaAST SACROCCYGEAL, which is located at the tail end of the spine. For this reason, Clivus and Sastoroccygeal are two places where chordomes are most likely to grow. Notocord cells can sometimes remain in other parts of the spine and potentially cause chords in a place other than the Clivus or in the Sacrococcygeal area.

The symptoms of chordoma depend on the position of the primary tumor growth. When the tumor grows in Clivus, symptoms usually include headaches and visual impairment. When the tumor grows in the sacracoccygeal or elsewhere in the spine, symptoms may include back pain and incontinence. Weakness, pain or insensitivity of legs or arms if the tumor pushes the nerve.

Chordoma treatment most often involves surgical procedure as possible as possible. This surgery often monitors radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. Complete surgical removalThe tumor reduces the risk of recurrence, but cannot completely eliminate the risk. Possible complications of skull surgery include intracranial bleeding, meningitis, increased intracranial pressure and fig. In the case of spine tumor, complications include walking problems and dysfunction of the bladder or intestine.

While the chordomes are very slowly growing tumors, it is also very likely that they will attack the surrounding tissues, are likely to metastasize and are likely to be repeated even after surgical removal of the primary tumor. For all these reasons, the prognosis is often poor for this type of tumor. The person who has been diagnosed with this tumor type has approximately fifty percent of the chance of survival five years or more and ten percentage of survival for more than ten years.