title: Never too early to examine the evidence!
abstract: On a bright day in Philadelphia just over one year ago, a group of surgeons met to discuss the possibility of critically examining the literature published thus far on endoscopic techniques in the management of sinonasal and skull base tumours at the instigation of the European Rhinologic Society. Whilst it has proved relatively easy to provide level 1 evidence for virtually all medical treatments of allergic rhinitis (1), even for many therapies in rhinosinusitis (2), in rhinology in general we have struggled with surgical approaches, not because they don’t work but because they do not readily lend themselves to placeboarms or drug-company sponsorship. The rapid uptake of endoscopic techniques for nose and sinus diseases relied on more than just the undoubted enjoyment of using the instrumentation and whilst we had witnessed the escalation and extension of the techniques to the skull base and sino-orbital interface for benign conditions, there was a natural hesitation and concern about applying these to tumours and especially to malignant disease(3).
authors.forename: Valerie J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Lund
mesh_terms: D004724:Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D010255:Paranasal Sinus Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D019292:Skull Base Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*