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[Skull base chondrosarcoma. An interdisciplinary challenge]
P U Lohnstein1, J Schipper, M Tatagiba
1Klinik für Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg i. Br. lohnstein@hno1.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
Background:
Chondrosarcoma is a rare differential diagnosis of malignant tumours of the skull base. The prognosis was rated as unfavourable in articles for many years. It has, however, improved considerably in recent years. The objective of this study was to evaluate and current, new optimised treatment strategies.
Patients And Methods:
We retrospectively analysed the case histories and course of four patients whom we treated for chondrosarcoma of the skull base over the past 5 years at the Freiburg Skull Base Centre.
Results:
Because of initially mild symptoms, the patients first came for examination at an advanced stage of the tumour. All patients underwent surgery, whereby an R0-resection was barely or only questionably present. Three patients underwent radiation therapy postoperatively. All patients are currently tumour free.
Conclusions:
Surgical treatment with curative intent is basically the therapy of choice. Due to the usually large size of the tumour and its close relationship to relevant structures, complete resection is, however, not always possible despite advances in surgical procedures. Taking the possibility of modern adjuvant radiotherapeutic procedures into account, an incomplete, function-preserving resection is preferred to a radical and mutilating resection.
