Chordomas and chondrosarcomas-The role of radiation therapy.

Achieving negative surgical margins can be challenging for skull base and spinal/paraspinal sarcomas. Data shows that pre- or post-operative radiation therapy improves local control. Delivery of sufficient dose of radiation can be difficult because of the proximity to normal organs/tissues that are sensitive to radiation therapy and therefore dose-limiting. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed search engine. The scarcity of prospective, randomized data limits the ability to generate definitive treatment recommendations. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;114:564-569.