Cervical chondrosarcoma- rare malignancy: a case report

To highlight an uncommon bone malignancy, which presented to our institute, as a neck swelling in the supraclavicular region. A 30 year old man presented with history of swelling on the left side of neck since 1 year and numbness of left upper limb since 6 months. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Cervical spine & MR Angiography showed a 7.4 × 4.6 cm expansile lesion involving transverse process of C5-C7 vertebrae. As the tumour was found to be deep to the phrenic nerve & brachial plexus, a dual approach was used, anteriorly via neck incision and posteriorly via the spine. The tumour was resected & iliac crest grafted along with stabilization of the cervical spine. Patient is disease free and the cervical spine stabilized with normal movements at two and half years follow up. We need to consider tumour arising from the vertebra as a differential diagnosis for any deep seated hard neck swelling in the supraclavicular region. Even low grade malignancy of this region when resected en-bloc will have a good prognosis.