Chondrosarcoma of the spine: an unusual radiographic presentation

Chondrosarcoma is a primary malignant tumor arising rarely in the axial skeleton. It usually presents as a destructive lesion with diffuse mottled calcification. We report three patients with chondrosarcoma of the spine. Each patient was evaluated by conventional radiographic technique, computed tomography, and myelography. All of them show radiographically a purely destructive process of the body and in one case the body and lamina. This pattern remains to be documented in the radiologic literature.