Giant cell tumor of the petrous temporal bone with direct invasion into the middle ear

Giant cell tumor (GCT) is an uncommon primary bone tumor. The GCT mostly involves the extremity long bones. Rare is a GCT with tumoral growth in the cranium, especially other than the sphenoid bone. We herein report a 31-year-old male patient presenting with ipsilateral hearing loss and episodes of vertigo due to a large lobulated GCT of the right petrous temporal bone extending into the contiguous middle cranial fossa, infratemporal space, middle ear and external ear canal. He was treated with a macroscopically radical tumor excision followed by conventional megavoltage radiotherapy. The patient remains free of clinical and radiological evidences of tumoral recurrence six years after treatment. This experience supports the rationale for the combined treatment with radical excision plus irradiation toward this rare neoplasm when vigorous invasion of the skull base is encountered.