Sacrococcygeal chordomas: problems in diagnosis and management.

Chordomas are rare, insidious, and slow-growing but locally aggressive, malignant tumors originating from the primitive notochord and localized along the axial skeleton. Between 1988 and 1993, four patients with sacrococcygeal chordomas were treated at the Ankara Numune State Hospital. There was a median 17-month interval between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis. In all patients, a posterior approach was used. In addition, two patients were treated with adjuvant radiation therapy. There were no serious intra- or postoperative complications. Early diagnosis and surgery plus radiation therapy seem to provide the best results in terms of survival.