A pathological study of 167 tumors of the spine at The Center for Traumatology-Orthopaedics during 5 years (1993 - 98) shows: (1) The primary tumors of the spine are rare but the frequency of bone metastases from a carcinoma is high; (2) The most frequent primary tumors are malignant ones including Kahler's diseases, chordomas and lymphomas; (3) The benign ones are very rare and occur in the children and adolescents; (4) The progresses in the medical imaging, surgery, anesthesiology, pathology help us to know more about the nature of the tumors and to ameliorate the diagnosis and treatment quality.