A Review on the Genomic Landscape of Spinal Chondrosarcoma and Potential Diagnostic, Prognostic & Therapeutic Implications

The advent of the human genome project has offered new insights into the aetiology of rare tumours along with the potential for development of new diagnostic and therapeutic targets.Chondrosarcoma is one of the most common primary tumours of the spine, accounting for approximately 20–27% of primary bone malignancies [1]. Thoracic spine is thought to be the most common axial location for this primary malignant bone tumour, however the incidence of chondrosarcoma for the rest of the spine is not known as it is only reported in cases [2,3]. Outside of the spine the most common location for chondrosarcoma is in the lower followed by upper limbs [1]. Various authors have suggested that extra skeletal chondrosarcoma of the spine may have a different aetiology to other locations [4–6].The mainstay of treatment is en-bloc surgical resection combined in some centres with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy [2]. Despite treatment, the prognosis remains poor due to local recurrence and metastasis [7,8].Although the genomics of chondrosarcoma in general has been studied, to the knowledge of the authors, there is no comprehensive review of the genetic/genomic landscape of chondrosarcoma of the spine. We hypothesize that the genomic landscape of spinal chondrosarcoma is different to non-axial chondrosarcoma. We aim to systematically review the literature with a focus on identifying prognostic indicators, biomarkers and potential targets for future gene therapy or chemotherapeutic treatments for this tumor.