Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 7, 2026
Endoscopic Endonasal Trans-sphenoidal Approach: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas
Published on: January 17, 2018
[Endoscopic endonasal surgery for anterior and middle skull base neuroendocrine carcinoma]
Wei Wei1, Qiuhang Zhang2, Bo Yan1
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery Center, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100045, China.
Objective:
To investigate the optimal treatment strategy with endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) and the prognostic factors of anterior and middle skull base neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC).
Method:
Fourteen patients with anterior and/or middle skull base NEC, admitted to Xuanwu Hospital between November 2006 and June 2014, were reviewed retrospectively. All patients were treated with EEA. Four cases received surgery onle. Two cases received radiotherapy and one case received chemotherapy before surgery. One case received adjuvant radiotherapy and 6 cases received chemoradiation after surgery. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier method.
Result:
Complete resection was achieved in 12 cases, while subtotal resection was achieved in 2 cases. There was no surgical complication. Three cases were diagnosed as well-differentiated NEC, 2 cases were moderately differentiated NEC and 9 cases were small cell NEC. The patients were followed up for 6 to 97 months. Three patients died and one patient lost to follow-up. The 5-year survival rate in this group was 64.3%.
Conclusion:
Pure EEA or EEA combined with multimodality therapy, which was applied depending on the pathological type, was a feasible treatment strategy for anterior and middle skull base NEC.
