Intracranial chordoma in a preadolescent. Case report

Intracranial chordoma presenting as acute hemorrhage in a child: Case report and literature review

Background:

Chordomas are rare, slow-growing malignant neoplasms derived from remnants of the embryological notochord. Pediatric cases comprise only 5% of all chordomas, but more than half of the reported pediatric chordomas are intracranial. For patients of all ages, intracranial chordomas typically present with symptoms such as headaches and progressive neurological deficits occurring over several weeks to many years as they compress or invade local structures. There are only reports of these tumors presenting acutely with intracranial hemorrhage in adult patients.

Case Description:

A 10-year-old boy presented with acute onset of headache, emesis, and diplopia. Head computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of brain were suspicious for a hemorrhagic mass located in the left petroclival region, compressing the ventral pons. The mass was surgically resected and demonstrated acute intratumoral hemorrhage. Pathologic examination was consistent with chordoma.

Conclusion:

There are few previous reports of petroclival chordomas causing acute intracranial hemorrhage. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first case of a petroclival chordoma presenting as acute intracranial hemorrhage in a pediatric patient. Although uncommon, it is important to consider chordoma when evaluating a patient of any age presenting with a hemorrhagic lesion of the clivus.

A comprehensive analysis of intracranial chordoma and survival: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Despite the published information on cranial chordoma, most of the data regarding survival in these patients has come from a single institution. Here, we perform a systematic review of the literature to evaluate across multiple institutions the overall survival after treatment for intracranial chordoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We systematically analysed every study published in English and found a total of over 2000 patients being treated for intracranial chordoma. The overall 5-year and 10-year survivals in these patients were stratified according to the age (<5 years vs. >5 years and  <40 years vs. >40 years), treatment (surgery and radiation vs. surgery alone) and histological findings (chondroid vs. typical). Data were analysed via Pearson chi-square test and student t-test when appropriate.

RESULTS

A total of 560 non-duplicated patients treated for cranial chordoma met inclusion criteria for this systematic analysis. The survival rate among these patients was 63% (299 patients) and 16% (176 patients) for 5-year and 10-year survivals, respectively. There was no difference in overall survival between the two groups when a cut-off age of 40 years was used (<40 years = 50% vs.  >40 years = 51% at 5-year survival; p = 0.1), but when 5 years was used as the cut-off age, then survival was better for patients in the group older than 5 years of age (<5 years = 14% vs.  >5 years = 66%; p = 0.001). There was no difference between 5-year survival in patients with chordoma with histological chondroid features and those with chordoma possessing typical histology (45% vs. 67%; p = 0.06). When patients who only received surgery were compared to those patients who were treated with surgical intervention in combination with adjuvant radiation treatment, no difference in survival rate was found (54% vs. 56% at 5 years; p = 0.8).

CONCLUSION

The results of our systematic study provide data to predict the survival of intracranial chordoma patients across multiple institutions. Our data suggest that patients younger than 5 years of age may be associated with a worse prognosis, and adjuvant radiation therapy and histological type were not associated with the improvement of survival rates.

Adjuvant radiation therapy and chondroid chordoma subtype are associated with a lower tumor recurrence rate of cranial chordoma

Cranial chordomas are rare tumors that have been difficult to study given their low prevalence. Individual case series with decades of data collection provide some insight into the pathobiology of this tumor and its responses to treatment. This meta-analysis is an attempt to aggregate the sum experiences and present a comprehensive review of their findings. We performed a comprehensive review of studies published in English language literature and found a total of over 2,000 patients treated for cranial chordoma. Patient information was then extracted from each paper and aggregated into a comprehensive database. The tumor recurrences in these patients were then stratified according to age (<21 vs. >21 years), histological findings (chondroid vs. typical) and treatment (surgery and radiation vs. surgery only). Data was analyzed via Pearson chi-square and t-test. A total of 464 non-duplicated patients from 121 articles treated for cranial chordoma met the inclusion criteria. The recurrence rate among all patients was 68% (314 patients) with an average disease-free interval of 45 months (median, 23 months). The mean follow-up time was 39 months (median, 27 months). The patients in younger group, patients with chordoma with chondroid histologic type, and patients who received surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy had significantly lower recurrence rate than their respective counterparts. The results of our systematic analysis provide useful data for practitioners in objectively summarizing the tumor recurrence in patients with cranial chordomas. Our data suggests that younger patients with chondroid type cranial chordoma treated with both surgery and radiation may have improved rates of tumor recurrence in the treatment of these tumors.

Base of Skull Chordomas in Children and Adolescents

Chordomas in children and adolescents comprise <5% of all chordomas and most frequently develop in the skull base. These tumors are believed to behave more aggressively than chordomas in adults and may have unusual morphology. This study examines a large series of pediatric skull base chordomas treated with a standardized protocol to characterize the behavior and morphology of these tumors. There were 31 males and 42 females ranging from 1 to 18 (mean 9.7) years. Forty-two cases (58%) were conventional chordomas, some of which had unusual histopathologic features. Chondroid chordomas comprised 23% of cases. Fourteen tumors (19%) were highly cellular and had a solid growth pattern with no myxoid matrix or lobular architecture. Eight of these had cytologic features of conventional chordoma cells including physaliferous cells (cellular chordoma). The remaining cellular tumors were composed of poorly differentiated epithelioid cells set in a fibrous stroma and lacked physaliferous cells (poorly differentiated chordoma). All variants studied by immunohistochemistry showed positive staining for cytokeratin, epithelial membrane antigen, S100 protein, and vimentin. Mitoses and necrosis were seen in all variants. Follow-up data were available for all patients and ranged from 1 to 21 (mean 7.25) years. The survival rate was 81%. All but 1 patient with poorly differentiated chordoma died of disease. Overall, base of skull chordomas in children and adolescents treated with proton beam radiation have better survival than chordomas in adults. However, poorly differentiated chordomas are highly aggressive tumors.

Cranial chordomas in children and adolescents

Chordomas are rare tumors that usually occur in adults. This report describes four cases of intracranial chordomas treated in patients 20 years of age or younger by the senior author (O.A.M.) during a 4-year period. The authors also reviewed the literature on pediatric patients, which revealed that the clinical presentations, histological patterns, and behaviors of these tumors differ considerably depending on whether the patient is younger or older than 5 years of age. The younger population had a wider range of presenting symptoms, a greater prevalence of atypical histological findings with aggressive behavior, a greater range of cellularity than the classic chordomas, and a higher instance of metastasis; it showed no chondroid component compared to a 17.1% instance in the older patients. The prognosis for patients with a chordoma is related directly to the histological pattern of the tumor; the atypical chordoma carries a poor prognosis. The prognoses for children older than 5 years of age with a classic or chondroid tumor were not significantly different (p=0.788). At follow up, the difference in survival rates between patients undergoing surgery plus radiation therapy and those who had surgery alone was statistically significant (p=0.00446). No correlation was found between radical resection or radiation therapy and an improved prognosis for patients younger than 5 years of age who had a tumor with an atypical histological pattern. This study identifies and delineates the distinction between these age groups and provides a review of the potential prognostic factors.

Clival chordomas

Three cases of clival chordomas are reviewed and the findings are compared to those in the recent literature. In the first case the tumour arose from the basion, spreading downwards to invade the upper cervical canal and the paravertebral fascial planes. The second case is a rare case since it affects a 12 year old pre-adolescent boy. The third case showed the characteristic features of petro-clival erosion and a large extracranial component in the nasopharynx. In all three cases, computed tomography was an excellent modality for demonstrating bone destruction, sequestra and calcification but inferior to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in demonstrating the soft tissue extent of the tumour. The multiplanar capability of MRI was found to be particularly useful for planning treatment. Vertebral angiography can demonstrate the tumours by vessel displacement, encasement and vascular staining. Two cases had angiography and demonstrated tumour blush. Pre-operative embolization was helpful in one case.

Cranial chordoma in the first decade

Cranial chordomas are extremely rare in childhood with only 25 cases having been reported in the first decade of life. A 6-year-old female child with cranial chordoma is reported. Literature on the subject is reviewed, with special reference to the management, histopathological features and prognosis in childhood chordomas as compared to the adult variety.