Helical tomotherapy of spinal chordomas: French Multicentric, retrospective study of a cohort of 30 cases

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of helical tomotherapy (HT) in the management of spine chordomas when proton therapy is unavailable or non-feasible. Methods and materials: Between 2007 and 2013, 30 patients with biopsy-proven chordomas were treated by HT in five French institutions. Information regarding local control (LC), overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and metastasis-free survival (MFS) was collected. Clinical efficacy, toxicity and treatment quality were evaluated. Results: Two-year actuarial LC, OS, PFS and MFS were 69.9%, 96.7%, 61.2% and 76.4%, respectively. HT treatments were well tolerated and no Grade 4–5 toxicities were observed. HT permitted the delivery of a mean dose of 68 Gy while respecting organ at risk (OAR) dose constraints, in particular in the spinal cord and cauda equina. Conclusions: This multicentric, retrospective study demonstrated the feasibility of HT in the treatment of spine chordomas, in the absence of hadron therapy.