Chordoma Location

Chordomas can occur anywhere along the spine, from the head to the tailbone. The most common locations are in the clivus (a bone in the middle of the head) (32%) and sacrum or coccyx (vertebrae at the bottom of the spine) (29%). Less frequently, chordomas can occur in the cervical (neck), thoracic (upper back), and lumbar (lower-back) vertebrae of the spine. Extremely rare cases of chordoma occurring away from the spine have been reported in the ribs, legs and feet.

Chordomas occurring in the head are sometimes called brain tumors because they grow inside the skull toward the brain, however they do not actually develop from brain cells. Metastasis (spread of tumor to other body parts) occurs in 20-40% of patients with chordomas of the spine and less than 10% of patients with skull-base tumors. The most common sites of distant metastasis are the lungs, liver, bones, and skin. Metastasis usually only occurs when the primary tumor is advanced or uncontrolled and rarely is reported at the time of initial diagnosis.