[Chondrosarcomas of skull base treatment].
OBJECTIVE
Skull base chondrosarcomas are rare. Gross total removal is the treatment of choice, but can be difficult depending on the closeness of noble structures. Proton beam therapy can be associated in most cases.


METHODS
Retrospective study of five cases treated in 13 years and study of the literature.


RESULTS
Median age of patients was 34 years [28-46]. Cranial nerve palsy was the common clinical presentation. Tumor location was variable but always off midline. Treatment was surgical in all patients with a maximal resection and proton beam therapy associated for two cases. Surgical complications were rare with cranial nerve palsy as the main side effect. Outcomes were good with a median follow-up of 12.4 years [4.3-16.2].


CONCLUSIONS
The review of the literature showed that chondrosarcomas of skull base are rare. The best outcome is achieved with total surgical resection. Medical imaging can only give clues to the diagnosis. Pathology is required to obtain a precise immunohistochemistry diagnosis. Multidisciplinary treatment using proton beam therapy and surgical removal enables a good local control (90-100%) at 5 years with good quality-of-life. It is difficult to determine how many cases have been published (around 220 cases in the literature) since many surgical or radiotherapy series included the same patients.
Seizeur
R
R
Service de neurochirurgie, pôle neurolocomoteur, hôpital Cavale-Blanche, CHU de Brest, avenue Foch, 29609 Brest cedex, France. romuald.seizeur@chu-brest.fr
Forlodou
P
P
Quintin-Roue
I
I
Person
H
H
Besson
G
G
D000328:Adult; D002813:Chondrosarcoma / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D020209:Cranial Nerve Injuries / Q000209:etiology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011522:Protons; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012886:Skull / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D019292:Skull Base Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D011522:Protons