Intraspinal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma in a three-year-old boy.

A case is presented of a 3-year-old boy with a mesenchymal chondrosarcoma extending from the 1st to the 5th lumbar vertebra. This is the youngest case of a mesenchymal chondrosarcoma located outside the skeleton or in the C.N.S. After assumed total excision with subsequent radiotherapy and chemotherapy, local tumor recurrence and (later) systemic metastases were detected. Standard therapy should include radical excision because of the high incidence of local recurrence and subsequent radiotherapy because of the expected high incidence of tumor cells in the CSF. The value of chemotherapy cannot be assessed, as it has been applied in only one other case found in the literature.