Our results suggest frequent recurrences in the majority of patients with chordomas. Radical resection is associated with a significantly longer disease-free interval, compared with subtotal removal of the tumor. Addition of radiation after subtotal resection improves the disease-free interval, although radiation therapy can generally be used only once. Based on these findings, we think that, whenever possible, radical resection should be the treatment of choice for sacral chordomas.

These results suggest that transthoracic vertebrectomy and spinal stabilization can improve the quality of life considerably in cancer patients with spinal metastasis by restoring or preserving ambulation and by controlling intractable spinal pain with acceptable rates of morbidity and mortality.

Our results suggest that the overall prognosis of patients with brain metastases from gastric cancer is extremely poor (median survival, 9 weeks). WBRT, as an adjuvant to steroid treatment, was not effective in improving outcome in our series. In selected patients, most of whom were relatively young and had less advanced systemic disease, surgical resection followed by WBRT was associated with relatively long survival times (median survival, 54 weeks).

Fluoroscopy-based image guidance that uses only a single reference marker for the entire thoracic spine is highly inaccurate and unsafe. Systems with registration based on the instrumented vertebrae provide more accurate placement of thoracic vertebral body screws than standard fluoroscopy, but expose the patient to more radiation and require more time for screw insertion.

Object. Primary chondrosarcoma of the spine is extremely rare. During the last 43 years only 21 patients with this disease were registered at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The purpose of this study was to examine the demographic characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of this set of patients. Methods. Medical records for 21 patients were reviewed. Age, sex, race, clinical presentation, tumor histology, tumor location in the spinal column, treatments, surgical details, and response to treatment were recorded. Surgical procedures were categorized as either gross-total resection or subtotal excision of tumor. Neurological function was assessed using Frankel's functional classification. Time to recurrence and survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan—Meier method. The median age of patients was 51 years, with fairly equal gender representation. Eighteen patients underwent at least one surgical procedure for a total of 28 surgical procedures: seven radical resections and 21 subtotal excisions. Radiation therapy was used in conjunction with 10 of the 28 surgical procedures. The median Kaplan—Meier estimate of overall survival for the entire group was 6 years (range 6 months–17 years). Tumors recurred after 18 of the 28 procedures. Kaplan—Meier analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in the per-procedure disease-free interval after gross-total resection relative to subtotal excision (exact log rank 3.39; p = 0.04). The addition of radiation therapy prolonged the median disease-free interval from 16 to 44 months, although this was not statistically significant (exact log rank 2.63; p = 0.16). Conclusions. Our results suggest that gross-total resection of the chondrosarcoma provides the best chance for prolonging the disease-free interval in patients. Subtotal excision should be avoided whenever possible. Addition of radiation therapy does not appear to lengthen significantly the disease-free interval in this patient population.