Malignant Skull Base Tumors

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The skull base is the bone, connective tissue, and blood vessels that form the bottom of the cranial vault. It extends from just below the ears laterally, to the eyes anteriorly, and to the back of the neck posteriorly. A variety of invasive or cancerous tumors arise within the skull base (e.g. osteosarcoma, chordoma, chondrosarcoma, etc.) or spread to the skull base (e.g. metastases, nasopharynx cancer, etc). A number of benign tumors can also be located in the skull base, including acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, glomus tumors, and craniopharyngiomas, but are described on another page of this web site.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery has been used successfully on a variety of invasive and malignant skull base tumors. The advantages of the Gamma Knife surround its ability to deliver a high dose of radiation to the tumor with optimal sparing of the sensitive surrounding cranial nerves and blood supply. This can be particularly advantageous in patients who have recurrences after attempts of treatments with surgery or conventional external radiation therapy. The Gamma Knife is limited, however, to tumors that do not extend too far inferiorly (i.e. toward the patients neck) due to technical problems associated with placement of the head frame and limits of the machine's collimators. As such, the suitability of Gamma Knife radiosurgery for these skull base tumors must be assessed on a case by case basis.

[Keywords: osteosarcoma, chordoma, chondrosarcoma, metastases, nasopharynx cancer, glomus tumors, craniopharyngiomas]

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