An evaluation of the diagnosis and treatment of chordoma

Abstract

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 vertebral, and 227 sacrococcygeal (Forti and Venturini, 1960). Few large series, however, have been published from single institutions (Dahlin and MacCarty, 1952; Poppen and King, 1952; Congdon. 1952). This paper presents all histologically confirmed cases of chordoma, 30 in number, seen at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre since 1927.