Treatments for chordoma
The following are treatment options for chordoma. Your healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your needs and work with you to make a treatment plan.
Surgery
Surgery is the standard treatment for chordoma. The following types of surgery may be used.
Wide resection
Wide resection removes the bone tumour and a small amount of tissue and bone around it (called a surgical margin). Doctors may use other terms for wide resection, such as en bloc resection or wide excision. Wide resection is the main surgical method used to treat chordoma.
Curettage
Curettage is a procedure that uses a spoon-shaped tool with a sharp edge (called a curette) to scrape a tumour out of the bone. This leaves a hole where the tumour was removed. After curettage, the surgeon may use bone cement to fix the hole left in the bone and destroy any remaining cancer cells. Bone cement is a chemical called polymethyl methacrylate. This special cement heats up as it hardens, so it can kill any remaining cancer cells in the bone. Curettage may be used in an area where a wide resection can’t be done safely, like in the skull or spine.
Find out more about surgery for bone cancer.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells. You may be offered radiation therapy for chordoma.
External radiation therapy may be used to:
- destroy any cancer cells left behind after a wide resection or curettage
- treat chordomas that can’t be removed with surgery.
Find out more about radiation therapy for bone cancer.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. It is usually offered for advanced chordoma that has spread (metastasized) and can’t be removed with surgery.
The most common chemotherapy drugs used to treat chordoma are:
- imatinib
- doxorubicin
The most common chemotherapy drug combinations used to treat chordoma are:
- imatinib and cisplatin
- CISPDOXO – doxorubicin and cisplatin
Find out more about chemotherapy for bone cancer.
Clinical trials
Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people with bone cancer in Canada. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.
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