Analysis of clinicopathologic features and immunophenotype in 55 patients with chordoma

Purpose To investigate the clinicopathologic features and the expression of CK,vimentin,S-100 and Ki-67 on patients with sacral chordoma.Methods 55 cases diagnosed as chordoma with available slides and clinical information,coded between 2007 and 2011,were retrieved from the our department of pathology.The expression of CK,vimentin,S-100 and Ki-67 were examined using immunohistochemistry.Results Of the 55 cases,35 were primary and 20 were recurrent cases.The ratio of males to females is 2.2 ∶ 1.The age ranged from 21 to 85 years(median,52.8 years).The majority of the tumor showed nodular growth pattern,focally with nests.The neoplasm were composed of physaliphorous cells and satellite-like cells.The tumor cells revealed mild to moderate atypia and the mitosis was rare.The focal necrosis was observed in a minority of cases.Immunohistochemistry was performed in 55 chordoma cases including 35 primary and 20 secondary cases.Immunohistochemical finding showed that the expression of CK,vimentin,S-100 were detected in 96.4%(53/55),100%(55/55),94.5%(52/55) cases,respectively.The index of Ki-67 ranged from 2% to 25%.No significant difference between primary and secondary chordoma cases in the expression of CK,vimentin,S-100 and Ki-67 was found(P0.05).Conclusions The chordoma is a kind of low grade malignant tumor and susceptible to recurrence.The combination detection with CK,vimentin,S-100 and Ki-67 may be adjunct to pathologic diagnosis of chordoma.