Symptoms of a chordoma depend on the tumor’s size and location. The tumor can cause numbness, back pain, headaches, and vision problems, among other symptoms.
A chordoma in the base of the skull, also known as a clival chordoma, can affect the facial and optical nerves, and cause pain and changes in nerve function in surrounding structures, including:
- Changes in hearing
- Difficulty swallowing
- Dizziness or vertigo
- Double vision
- Facial pain or numbness
- Headache
- Neck pain
- Paralysis of facial muscles
- Problems swallowing
- Speech changes
Chordomas below the skull base can press on the spine and nerves and cause the following symptoms:
- Changes in bladder or bowel function and control
- Changes in mobility – e.g., weakness in legs
- Impotence
- Numbness
- Pain
- Tingling
- Weakness
Our Care Team
- Vice Chair for Clinical Research
- David and Ursel Barnes Professor in Minimally Invasive Surgery
- Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Otolaryngology
- Director, Center for Epilepsy and Pituitary Surgery
- Co-Director, Surgical Neuro-oncology
Phone: 212-746-5620
- Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery
- Leon Levy Research Fellow
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute
Phone: 646-962-3389
- Assistant Professor of Neuroendocrinology in Neurological Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine
Phone: 646-962-3556
- Hansen-MacDonald Professor of Neurological Surgery
- Director of Spinal Surgery
Phone: 212-746-2152
- Director, Neurosurgical Radiosurgery
- Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery
- Robert G. Schwager, MD ’67 Education Scholar, Cornell University
Phone: 212-746-2438
- Chief of Neurological Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens
- Co-director, Weill Cornell Medicine CSF Leak Program
Phone: (718) 670-1837
- Chief of Neurological Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist
- Alvina and Willis Murphy Associate Professor, Neurological Surgery
- Director, Brain Metastases Program
- Co-director, William Rhodes and Louise Tilzer-Rhodes Center for Glioblastoma
Phone: 212-746-1996
Reviewed by: Theodore Schwartz, MD
Last reviewed: September 2020