Abstract
The skull base is affected by a wide range of tumor pathologies. They are often slow-growing, benign, extra-axial tumors that cause symptoms by involvement of the cranial nerves or a mass effect on the brain stem and cerebellum. They are often located in critical areas within the cranium that are especially hard to reach with routine surgical techniques. Involvement of cranial nerves and vessels makes these lesions particularly challenging to treat surgically. Due to the benign nature of most of these lesions, complete surgical removal often affords a cure, although some skull-base tumors require a combination of surgical and radiation therapies.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Surawicz TS, McCarthy BJ, Kupelian V. (1999) Descriptive epidemiology of primary brain and CNS tumors: results from the central brain tumor registry of the United States. Neuro-oncology 1(1):14–25
Heffelfinger MJ, Dahlin DC, MacCarty CS, Beabout JW. (1973) Chordomas and cartilaginous tumors at the skull base. Cancer 32(2):410–420
Krayenbuhl H, Yasargil MG. (1975) Cranial Chordomas. Prg Neurol Surg 6:380–434
Borba LA, Al-Mefty O, Mrak RE, Suen J. (1996) Cranial chordomas in children and adolescents. J Neurosurg 84 (4):584–591
al-Mefty O, Borba LA. (1997) Skull base chordomas: a management challenge. J Neurosurg 86(2):182–189
Colli B, Al-Mefty O. (2001) Chordomas of the craniocervi-cal junction: follow-up review and prognostic factors. J Neurosurg 95(6):933–943
Arnautovic KI, Al-Mefty O. (2001) Surgical seeding of chordomas. J Neurosurg 95(5):798–803
Hug EB, Loredo LN, Slater JD, DeVries A, Grove RI, Schaefer RA, Rosenberg AE, Slater JM. (1999) Proton radiation therapy for chordomas and chondrosarcomas of the skull base. J Neurosurg 91(3):432–439
Munzenrider JE, Liebsch NJ. (1999) Proton therapy for tumors of the skull base. Strahlenther Onkol 175(Suppl 2):57–63
Casali PG, Messina A, Stacchiotti S, Tamborini E, Crippa F, Gronchi A, Orlandi R, Ripamonti C, Spreafico C, Bertieri R, Bertulli R, Colecchia M, Fumagalli E, Greco A, Grosso F, Olmi P, Pierotti MA, Pilotti S. (2004) Imatinib mesylate in chordoma. Cancer 101(9):2086–2097
Ron E, Modan B, Joice JD, Alfandary E, Stovall M, Chetrit A, et al (1988) Tumors of the brain and nervous system after radiotherapy in childhood. New England Journal of Medicine 319:1033–1039
Al-Mefty O, Topsakal C, Pravdenkova S, Sawyer JR, Harrison MJ. (2004) Radiation-induced meningiomas: clinical, pathological, cytokinetic, and cytogenetic characteristics. J Neurosurgery 100(6):1002–1
Maini CL, Sciuto R, Tofani A, Ferraironi A, Carapella CM, Occhipinti E, Mottolese M, Crecco M. (1995) Somatostatin receptor imaging in CNS tumours using 111In-octreotide. Nucl Med Commun 16(9):756–766
Kleihues P, Cavenee W (eds). (2000) World Health Organization classification of tumors: pathology and genetics of tumors of the nervous sytem. IARC Press, Lyon, France
Perry A, Stafford SL, Scheithauer BW, Suman VJ, Lohse CM. (1997) Meningioma grading: an analysis of his-tologic parameters. Am J Surg Pathol 21(12):1455–1465
Perry A, Scheithauer BW, Stafford SL, Lohse CM, Wollan PC. (1999) “Malignancy” in meningiomas: a clini-copathologic study of 116 patients, with grading implications. Cancer 85(9):2046–2056
Al-Mefty O, Kadri PA, Pravdenkova S, Sawyer JR, Stangeby C, Husain M. (2004) Malignant progression in meningioma: documentation of a series and analysis of cyto-genetic findings. J Neurosurg 101(2):210–218
Cushing h, Eisenhardt L. (1938) Meningiomas: their classi-fication, regional behaviour, life history, and surgical end results. Charles c Thomas, Springfield, IL
Pieper DR, Al-Mefty O, Hanada Y, Buechner D. (1999) Hyperostosis associated with meningioma of the cranial base: secondary changes or tumor invasion. Neurosurgery 44(4):742–746; discussion 746–747
Al-Mefty O. (1990) Clinoidal meningiomas. J Neurosurg 73(6):840–849
DeMonte F, Smith HK, al-Mefty O. (1994) Outcome of aggressive removal of cavernous sinus meningiomas. J Neurosurg 81(2):245–251
Arnautovic KI, Al-Mefty O. (2002) Primary meningiomas of the jugular fossa. J Neurosurg 97(1):12–20
Simpson D. (1957) The recurrence of intracranial menin-giomas after surgical treatment. J Neurochem 20(1):22–39
Pollock BE, Stafford SL, Utter A, Giannini C, Schreiner SA. (2003) Stereotactic radiosurgery provides equivalent tumor control to Simpson Grade 1 resection for patients with small-to medium-size meningiomas. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 55(4):1000–1005
Borba LA, Al-Mefty O. (1996) Intravagal paragangliomas: report of four cases. Neurosurgery 38(3):569–575; discussion 575
Fisch U. (1982) Infratemporal fossa approach for glomus tumors of the temporal bone. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 91(5 Pt 1):474–479
Jackson CG, Glasscock ME 3rd, McKennan KX, Koopmann CF Jr, Levine SC, Hays JW, Smith HP. (1987) The surgical treatment of skull-base tumors with intracranial extension. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 96(2):175–185
Al-Mefty O, Teixeira A. (2002) Complex tumors of the glo-mus jugulare: criteria, treatment, and outcome. J Neurosurg 97(6):1356–1366
Kadri PA, Al-Mefty O. (2004) Surgical treatment of dumbbell-shaped jugular foramen schwannomas. Neurosurg Focus 17(2):E9
Gottfried ON, Liu JK, Couldwell WT. (2004) Comparison of radiosurgery and conventional surgery for the treatment of glomus jugulare tumors. Neurosurg Focus 17(2):E4
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Erkmen, K., Al-Mefty, O., Adada, B. (2010). Tumors of the Skull Base. In: Tonn, JC., Westphal, M., Rutka, J.T. (eds) Oncology of CNS Tumors. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02874-8_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02874-8_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-02873-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-02874-8
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)