Treatment options

Therapies for craniopharyngioma include surgery and conventional external radiation therapy, and in selected cases, stereotactic radiosurgery or intracavitary irradiation. In general, each of these modalities, either alone or in combination, can give a high rate of long-term disease control in the majority of patients. Debate centers on the relative morbidity of the different approaches.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7] Treatment of cystic tumors with intracavitary chemotherapy has also been reported.[8]

References:

1. Long-term outcomes for surgically resected craniopharyngiomas. Neurosurgery 46 (2): 291-302; discussion 302-5, 2000.
2. Regine WF, Kramer S: Pediatric craniopharyngiomas: long term results of combined treatment with surgery and radiation. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 24 (4): 611-7, 1992.
3. Hetelekidis S, Barnes PD, Tao ML, et al.: 20-year experience in childhood craniopharyngioma. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 27 (2): 189-95, 1993.
4. Backlund EO, Axelsson B, Bergstrand CG, et al.: Treatment of craniopharyngiomas--the stereotactic approach in a ten to twenty-three years' perspective. I. Surgical, radiological and ophthalmological aspects. Acta Neurochir (Wien) 99 (1-2): 11-9, 1989.
5. Pollock BE, Lunsford LD, Kondziolka D, et al.: Phosphorus-32 intracavitary irradiation of cystic craniopharyngiomas: current technique and long-term results. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 33 (2): 437-46, 1995.
6. Van Effenterre R, Boch AL: Craniopharyngioma in adults and children: a study of 122 surgical cases. J Neurosurg 97 (1): 3-11, 2002.
7. De Vile CJ, Grant DB, Kendall BE, et al.: Management of childhood craniopharyngioma: can the morbidity of radical surgery be predicted? J Neurosurg 85 (1): 73-81, 1996.
8. Takahashi H, Nakazawa S, Shimura T: Evaluation of postoperative intratumoral injection of bleomycin for craniopharyngioma in children. J Neurosurg 62 (1): 120-7, 1985.