[Fractionated radiotherapy of intracranial meningiomas and neurinomas]

Abstract

In most institutions, surgical excision remains the standard treatment of meningiomas and neurinomas; the aim of surgery is complete resection. However, total removal is not always feasible without significant morbidity and in some cases, the patient's condition contraindicates surgery. For incompletely excised tumors, recurrences will have consequences on neurological functions. There are now many reports in the literature confirming the fact that radiotherapy significantly decreases the incidence of recurrence of incompletely resected benign tumors and that it can replace surgery in some situations where an operation would involve considerable danger or permanent neurological damage: about 80 to 90% of such tumors are controlled with fractionated radiotherapy. Stereotaxic and three-dimensional treatment planning techniques increase local control and central nervous system tolerance so that the respective place of surgery and radiotherapy needs to be redefined, considering efficacy and morbidity of these two therapeutic means. In this article, we limit our remarks to fractionated radiotherapy and, after a review of the literature, we discuss the indications, volume evaluations and the techniques currently used.