Li B, et al. - In this retrospective cohort study, researchers evaluated the prognostic value of preoperative plasma D-dimer level in patients with spinal chordoma. Enrolling 224 patients who underwent surgery for spinal chordoma between 2002 and 2015 at Changzheng Orthopedic Oncology Center, they identified the optimal cutoff value of pretreatment D-dimer as 840 μg/L determined by X-tile. Poor prognosis in chordoma was evident in correlation with higher pretreatment plasma D-dimer level. For the survival of the patients with spinal chordoma, plasma D-dimer level seems to have potential utility as an independent prognostic factor. Furthermore, D-dimer level supplementation for defining tumor Enneking staging may enhance its capability to accurate stratify individualized risk and determine clinical management.