Cervical Spine MRI Shows Enhancing Lesion- What's the cause?

Hi,
Hoping for some help. I was diagnosed with MS in 2007 went in for an updated MRI of my brain and cervical spine to check out  some symptoms I was having (dizziness, numb/week left hand). Separately I have chronic neck pain and tightness. I also got into a minor car accident in 2009. The cervical MRI report came back with the following....

"there is an enhancing lesion along the superior endplate of theT2 vertebral body with decreased signal on T1 and increased signal on T2 weighted images. This has significantly increased in size when compared to the prior examination. This may represent endplate degenerative changes although no significant degeneration of the disc is noted"

The neurologist said he thinks this is totally unrelated to the MS and possible was end plate degenerative change but kept stressing and asking if I have ear ringing, without thinking about it i said no, but when going home and thinking a bit more I do from time to time (about once a month) have ear ringing. After google'ing- neck cancer came up as a popular option. Since there isn't degeneration of the disc (which from what I understand you'd expect with this kind of degradation) how possible is it that the enhancing lesion is a tumor? If it were would the MRI be able to identify the difference?

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

Though an MRI is not the best test for identification of tumours; with the description, the lesion appears to be indeed degenerative and specifically unrelated to MS.
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!