NCT00341627

Genetic Aspects of Chordoma: A Collaboration With SEER Registries to Identify Chordoma Families

Completed Last updated 10 July 2020

What this trial tests

trial in Chordoma in 56 participants. Completed in 6 July 2020.

Timeline

1 February 1999

Primary endpoint
6 July 2020

6 July 2020

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Status	Completed
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	56
Start date	1 February 1999
Primary completion	6 July 2020
Estimated completion	6 July 2020
Sites	2 locations across United States

Conditions studied

• Chordoma — all drugs for Chordoma →

Sponsor

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Who can join

Under 110, any sex, with Chordoma. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Chordoma is an uncommon (400 case/year in the U.S.) and potentially fatal bone tumor derived from remnants of embryonic notochord. It occurs primarily in the axial skeleton and has a mean age at diagnosis of 55 years, with a range from early childhood to over 70 years. This tumor usually presents at an advanced stage and the associated mortality is high due to local destruction and distant metastases. Chordoma is rare in African-Americans and is typically sporadic; there are few reports of these tumors arising congenitally or within members of the same family.

Recently, we have identified and studied one large family in which 10 relatives in three generations have chordoma; the inheritance pattern suggests transmission of a mutation in an autosomal dominant gene. Using information from this family, we have tentatively napped this gene to the long arm of chromosome 7. To confirm this finding, and to fine map and clone the gene, we need to study additional chordoma families. In an effort to identify such families, we have developed collaborations with four SEER registries covering the populations of Detroit, Los Angeles, Iowa, and New Mexico. Each registry will identify all chordoma cases diagnosed since 1988 and invite them (or the next of kin of deceased cases) to participate in our study. Through 1997, the registries have identified a total of 140 chordoma cases, 96 of whom are living. The registries will invite these patients (or their next of kin) to participate in the study. The study components include completion of a self-administered personal and family medical history questionnaire, retrieval of medical records and pathology reports pertaining to chordoma, and collection of paraffin-embedded chordoma tissue and buccal mucosal cells for genetic studies. NCI will carry out all the data collection activities for the study subjects identified through the Detroit registry. NCI will also conduct the buccal cell collection component of the study for all patients identified by the other three registries. These three registries will carry out all other study activities on these patients/next of kin and will send the data and slides prepared from the paraffin blocks to NCI. NCI will analyze the questionnaire data to determine if any unusual patterns of cancers other than chordoma or other medical conditions appear to cluster in families of the chordoma patients. Selected members of any families with two or more relatives with chordoma will be invited to participate in a separate clinical and molecular study conducted at NIH to try to identify the chordoma gene. DNA from the buccal cells and tumor blocks from all other patients with "sporadic" chordoma identified through the registries (likely to comprise most patients) will not be studied until we or others have identified such a gene.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.