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The prognostic significance of different degrees of resection of skull base chordoma

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Abstract

Background

Complete resection combined with postoperative radiotherapy is ideal for skull base chordomas. The recent literature suggests that the degree of surgical resection is the most important prognostic factor.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 16 patients with initial chordoma treated at our center between August 2015 and December 2021 and conducted a retrospective study on the prognosis of surgical treatment of skull base chordoma between 2013 and 2022.

Results

According to the Kaplan–Meier method, there was a significant difference in PFS between patients aged > 50 years and < 50 years, and no significant difference was observed in PFS for tumor involvement of the internal carotid artery, dura, or superior or inferior clivus. However, there was still a correlation with prognosis. As observed in the included literature, the 5-year overall survival rate was significantly higher in patients undergoing total skull base chordoma resection than in those undergoing subtotal resection (STR), which in turn was significantly higher than in those undergoing partial resection (PR). Patients undergoing subtotal resection had significantly better 5-year PFS rates than those undergoing PR.

Conclusion

Our study shows that gross total resection and STR have better survival in patients with skull base chordomas compared to PR.

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Data availability

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Abbreviations

DFS:

Disease-free survival

OS:

Overall survival

GTR:

Gross total resection

STR:

Subtotal resection

PR:

Partial resection

ICA:

Internal carotid artery

CT:

Computed tomography

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

RCTs:

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs)

MINORS:

Methodological Index for Non-Randomized Studies

OR:

Odds ratio

CI:

Confidence interval

K–M:

Kaplan–Meier

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Acknowledgements

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funding

This Research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82171118).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

WJ, YaW, ZP, and YuW conceived and designed the study. YaW, ZP, and YuW performed the analysis, HZ and RF prepared the figures and tables, YaW wrote the main manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weihong Jiang.

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Wang, Y., Peng, Z., Wang, Y. et al. The prognostic significance of different degrees of resection of skull base chordoma. Clin Transl Oncol 24, 2441–2452 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-022-02915-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-022-02915-7

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