Cervical chordoma: case report

Chordomas of the cervical spine are rare. A case of a cervical chordoma is described. The initial radiological misinterpretation was due to the unavailability of CT myelography or MRI. Treatment of this disease is difficult, with multiple operations often required. Tumour bulk at diagnosis, completeness of surgical excision, availability of radiotherapy and biological behaviour of the chordoma are the main determinants of survival. Our case is interesting in terms of long survival which is 11 years to date. On reviewing the recent literature we have not found separate survival statistics for cervical chordoma, however, we have found 4 other cases of cervical chordoma with survival greater than 10 years.