Cytogenetic abnormalities are highly significantly correlated to recurrence in skull base meningiomas: A follow-up of 107 patients

The type and extent of surgical resection is important in skull base meningiomas. Some surgeons advocate a radical approach with total tumour removal whereas others favour a conservative attitude, supported by the thought that the natural benign behaviour of these lesions is also favorable if tumour remains. Thus histopathological examination alone has often failed to identify tumours that tend to recur or show a more aggressive biology and therefore we focused on the search of additional parameters to improve the care of our patients. Between 1976 and 1995 a total of 325 meningiomas - among them 110 skull base meningiomas - were collected and cytogenetically analysed using standard techniques and followed for at least 1 year. As the total recurrence rate in skull base meningiomas was 13% (110) and 15% (315) in other intracranial meningiomas we could not detect any differences in biological behaviour between these lokalisations. With regard to recurrence meningiomas with a hypodiploid caryotype displayed an up to five times elevated rate of recurrence (62.5%, 8 cases). Our observations demonstrate that a cytogenetically abnormal hypodiploid caryotype is highly significantly correlated with recurrence in skull base meningiomas and that the analysis of the karyotype of these tumours may be used as an indicator of prognostic value in identifying a small subgroup of patients at higher risk for special follow-up and treatment