A Rare Lymphoma in a Rare Location

Isolated primary bony lymphoma of the spine is exceedingly rare. Bone as the primary site of lymphoma occurs in 1% of all non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Primary vertebral locations are seen in 1.7% of all primary bony lymphomas. Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL) is very rare. We diagnosed the patient as a case of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK-1) positive ALCL by immunohistochemistry on a surgical specimen. Post-operative MRI of the spine as well as PET scan revealed residual active disease. Patient received combination chemotherapy with radiotherapy. He showed an excellent response in the form of improvement in paraparesis and good quality of life. Though this was a rare type of lymphoma with rare location, combined modalities of therapy resulted in a satisfactory outcome.