Adaptation of proton total dose with respect to dosimetric parameters within the frame of treatment of skull base or upper cervical spine chordomas

The authors report the study of the feasibility of a photon-proton irradiation protocol with a dose adaptation with respect to dosimetric factors for patients suffering form a skull base and upper cervical spine chordoma. Sixty patients have been treated between May 2006 and June 2008 with a combination of high energy photons and protons. As five tumours have locally relapsed and one at distance, the authors comment the local control rates, the number of attained cranial nerves, the value of the macroscopic tumour volume, the survival rate without relapse in terms of multifactorial of uni-factorial analysis. Short communication