Chordoma with a predominant retrosacral tumor mass.

Chordomas are malignant tumors with lobulated structure which usually consists of vacuolated physaliferous cells in a mucoid stroma (Enzinger et al. 1969). These cells originate from remnants of the chorda dorsalis. Most chordomas are located either at the end of the vertebral column, i.e., in the sacrococcygeal region or at the base of the skull near the sphenooccipital synchondrosis. More than half of all tumors are located in the sacrococcygeal region. In contrast to most cases of sacrococcygeal chordomas which show a predominant presacral tumor infiltration we report on a patient suffering from a sacrococcygeal chordoma with a retrosacral tumor mass. Here, the presacral tumor infiltration became apparent only much latter. It was nevertheless of great prognostic relevance as tumor infiltration of the urinary bladder lead to lethal septicaemia.