Chordoma treatment

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