Neoplasms of the Spinal Cord

There are but few organs in the human body in which neoplastic disease occurs in a more benign form and the results of surgery are more brilliant than in the spinal cord and its membranes. At the same time there is no organ in which total restoration of function following the removal of the neoplasm is so completely dependent on an early diagnosis. Unfortunately for the victims of spinal cord tumors, still too many of them are treated in the late stages of the disease—often after irreparable damage to the cord has occurred. If this condition is to be corrected, there must be a more general recognition of the early signs and symptoms of the disease and, most of all, there must be a general appreciation of the fact that a spinal cord tumor is not a rare but a relatively common lesion. Our purpose in this report is to