High expression of survivin in sacral chordoma.

Chordoma is a rare and invasive malignant tumor which primarily relies on surgical treatments. Anticipation of its recurrence and patient survival longevity has been a critical issue of the treatments. This retrospective study examined the survivin expression of sacral chordoma in 30 patients undergoing surgery in our hospital from January 2000 to July 2010, and compared it with chordoma recurrence. Survivin expression was 70 % positive in 30 patients. The positive expression of survivin with recurrence was significantly higher than that without recurrence (p = 0.017) and was inversely related to the continuous disease-free survival time (p < 0.001). Survivin expression was associated with recurrence. The correlation suggested that the survivin expression could be used as an independent predictor of recurrence and could be a potential bio-target gene of angiogenesis in sacral chordoma.