Commentary

In this article, Takami and colleagues have presented their experience with chordomas involving the petroclival area. Patients who had previously been operated on and/or irradiated, and who are the most difficult cases to treat, were excluded from the study. Therefore, the number of cases presented is limited. The authors' intent was to perform complete tumor resection, and they did so in six of eight patients. At the last follow-up three patients had no tumor recurrence; the remainder underwent surgery, irradiation, or both.

For the treatment of chordomas, I do not follow the same policy as the authors of this article. I perform an aggressive resection followed by radiotherapy if any tumor remains. The quality and appropriateness of the illustrations provide useful information for the readership.