Category Archives: Research
For more than three decades, internationally renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Chandra Sen, the Bergman Family Professor of Skull Base Surgery at NYU Langone Health, has provided expert surgical care to patients with chordoma and other skull base tumors. Now, Dr. Sen – a longtime member of the Chordoma Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board – has assembled a team of researchers at NYU Langone to join him in a new initiative to advance chordoma science. Continue reading
We know that chordoma is a tricky adversary. So when a recent clinical trial testing a therapeutic vaccine came back with unsatisfactory results, we were disappointed, but wholly undeterred. After all, scientific progress is almost never linear — and perseverance is the name of the game in this community. Continue reading
An uncommon level of commitment from the chordoma patient community has been the key driver of new discoveries that are changing the outlook for this disease. There are numerous opportunities for each of us affected by chordoma to fuel research advances that will dramatically improve treatments and outcomes. Continue reading
For more than three decades, internationally renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Chandra Sen, the Bergman Family Professor of Skull Base Surgery at NYU Langone Health, has provided expert surgical care to patients with chordoma and other skull base tumors. Now, Dr. Sen – a longtime member of the Chordoma Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board – has assembled a team of researchers at NYU Langone to join him in a new initiative to advance chordoma science. Continue reading
Immunotherapy is an approach that harnesses patients’ own immune systems to recognize and destroy their tumors. In recent years, it’s shown tremendous promise against several cancers. To ensure that chordoma patients benefit from these advances as well, investing in immunotherapy research is one of the Chordoma Foundation’s top priorities. Our newest immunotherapy grant will support a project to characterize the complex interactions between chordoma tumor cells and the immune system with the goal of identifying new treatment approaches for chordoma patients. Continue reading
The Chordoma Foundation is thrilled to have awarded two new $250,000 research grants aimed at generating a more complete picture of chordoma biology. The funds will support teams led by investigators at the University of Minnesota (U of M) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg, Germany, as they uncover drivers of chordoma metastasis and actionable differences in tumor subtypes, including tumors of different anatomic locations. Their findings are expected to uncover new therapeutic targets and inform personalized treatment strategies for chordoma patients. Continue reading
After having surgery to remove their tumor, most skull base chordoma patients also undergo radiation therapy. However, even in experienced centers, radiation can be associated with some long-term side effects. Thus, patients sometimes wonder if they could forgo radiation – particularly if no tumor remains after surgery. Now, new data could make the choice a little clearer for most patients with skull base chordoma. Researchers discovered that patients whose tumors have certain genetic markers might be able to refrain from radiation if surgery is successful in removing the entire tumor. Continue reading
Determining whether a chordoma tumor is responding to treatment – or if the disease has recurred – is a pressing challenge for patients and their care teams. Current techniques are imperfect: imaging can be impeded by surgical scarring and hardware, for example, and small recurrences or metastases may go undetected until they are large enough to show up on scans. Continue reading
In recent years, researchers have identified chordoma’s Achilles’ heel: a protein called brachyury, which drives and sustains the cancer. To date, attacking brachyury has been an uphill battle. But new research has helped illuminate the path forward: with support from the Chordoma Foundation, scientists demonstrated that brachyury could be directly degraded and that doing so caused chordoma cells to stop growing. Continue reading
The chordoma community is one of a number of rare cancer communities that has been invited to participate in the Natural History Study of Rare Solid Tumors, currently underway at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). The purpose of this important study is to collect clinical and biologic information including tumor tissue samples from patients with rare solid tumors, such as chordoma, to understand better how these tumors develop and grow. Continue reading
