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Chordoma treatment
Chordoma is a malignant tumor that is found in the lumbosacral region, in the occipital part of the skull and very rarely, in 15% of the total number of cases, in the spine. As a rare tumor, chordoma does not have its own staging, however, it is equated in this sense to sarcomas. The median 5 — year survival rate was 68%, and the 10-year survival rate was 40%. On average, people live for 7 years after diagnosis.
Its exact origin is unknown, the most likely version is that the chordoma is formed from the remains of the notochord (the netochord is the skeleton of a human embryo at a certain stage of development). This disease has no racial or genetic predisposition, but is 10-15% more common in men. Associations with the risk of chordoma and lifestyle were also not identified.
However, it is known that people who have a sequence called SNP in the brachyury gene are more likely to experience this disease. In the world, there are even several cases of familial chordoma, while family members have been found to have disorders in the brachyury gene.
As a rule, the chordoma of the lumbosacral region begins to manifest itself clinically in 20 – 25 years, and the chordoma of the occipital part of the skull-in 50-60 years.
MedTour patients recommend clinics for the treatment of chordoma:
Doctors for the treatment of chordoma
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Frequently Asked Questions
Fortunately, chordoma rarely affects the lymph nodes, and metastases are formed already at a late stage of the disease. Manifestations are associated with the growth of the tumor in
width and damage to adjacent nerves. Therefore, the symptoms are diverse:
- loss of voice
- headache
- visual impairment
- cough
- impaired sensitivity and functioning of the limbs,
impaired pelvic organs - Relatively common are diplopia (double image) with chordoma ofthe cranial fossa and an increase in body temperature at the site of the chordoma of any
localization. - With the progression of the disease, there may be a violation of cardiac activity, hemoptysis, the appearance of fluid in the abdominal cavity.
Diagnosis is made by CT or MRI of the affected area. In this way, you can see the formation and find out if other organs are affected. A biopsy is then performed to confirm the diagnosis.
As a rule, the complete cure of the chordoma can be achieved by removing the tumor. However, it should be said that this process is very complicated technically. The fact is that
the chordoma grows in the immediate vicinity of the brain or spinal cord, and is diagnosed in most cases when it already begins to squeeze the nerves.
Therefore, oncologists face a difficult task-to remove the tumor and not damage vital structures. Also, it is extremely
important to remove the chordoma completely together with the capsule, without leaving even the smallest, not visible to the eye areas of tumor cells, otherwise a new chordoma will
form from them.
Conducting such an intervention requires special methods. The treatment is carried out in 2 stages. first, a neurosurgical operation is performed, and then radiation on a linear accelerator, most often a cyber knife.
If it is impossible to remove the tumor or if there are distant metastases, chemotherapy is used.
- The frequency of occurrence of chordoma is 2-3 cases per 10 million people per year. Therefore, if you do not go to a specialized neurosurgical center, you will most likely have to
be treated by a doctor who has never dealt with chordoma before. - Neurosurgical operations performed on the Da Vinci robot are much more accurate and less traumatic, but in most CIS countries there are no such robots yet.
- To perform radiation at the second stage of treatment, a linear accelerator of a class not lower than a cyber-knife is required, however, a cyber-knife still leaves a sufficiently large
- risk of damage to the most important structures of the brain and spinal cord, nerves and pelvic organs. In order to minimize the risk of such damage, a linear accelerator with IMRT functions is necessary-taking into account the movement of organs relative to each other during irradiation and adjusting the direction of the beam at the same time.
Treatment for chordoma is most likely a cyberknife or other type of linear accelerator irradiation or neurosurgery.
The cost of such treatment:
- up to 18 thousand dollars Turkey
up to 28 thousand euros Europe
up to 43-45 thousand dollars Israel
Published:
Updated:
Information on this webpage verified by the medical expert
Рудченко Олексадр Украіна. Велике спасибі за професіоналізм та чуйність до всього колективу відділення, особливо лікарю Марісу Межецкісу. Лікування відбувалося у січні 2023 року.