Chordoma of the lower cervical spine

Vertebral chordomas are rather rare tumours, especially in the lower cervical region. We present a patient with a C7 vertebral body chordoma and a discussion of pertinent literature is given. Only three C7 chordomas have been reported previously. Diagnosis is sometimes difficult to establish and is based on radiological examinations. Once the histological diagnosis is available, one should aim at a total resection. If this is not possible, adjuvant radiotherapy should be given. For limited cervical lesions, we advise a corporectomy with fusion by an iliac crest graft and osteosynthetic plate stabilisation.