Current Therapeutic Situation

Craniopharyngiomas are benign midline tumors that have a propensity for local recurrence and are ideally curable via total surgical resection. Many survivors suffer from behavioral, cognitive, endocrine, hypothalamic, and visual disturbances. Optimal management remains highly controversial. In this chapter, we reviewed the therapy strategies for Craniopharyngiomas including surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Complete resection is even more important in children, especially those younger than 3 years, because of the additional morbidity associated with radiotherapy during early childhood. The aim of radiotherapy is to achieve long-term disease control in patients lacking complete removal or with recurrent tumors. Systemic chemotherapy has rarely been reported in terms of craniopharyngioma management. Local intratumoral chemotherapy for craniopharyngioma was used to treat difficult, recurrent cystic tumors and has subsequently been employed as a strategy to avoid late-term effects of surgery or radiotherapy. The roles of all therapies should be balanced according to factors such as the patient’s age, the tumor size and location, and prior treatment.

Keywords: BRAF, Chemotherapy, Craniopharyngiomas, Radiotherapy, Surgery.