Giant cell tumors of the skull: a series of 18 cases and review of the literature

Giant cell tumors (GCTs) are generally benign, locally aggressive lesions mostly located in the metaphysis of long bones. GCTs of the skull are rare and the majority of the cases have been presented as case reports. The authors retrospectively reported 18 patients with GCTs of the skull at a single institution from April 1994 to February 2012 and summarized the clinical, radiological, pathological characteristics and management of the disease. Meanwhile, a systematic review of 94 case reports of GCTs of the skull was performed. Headache and symptoms related to the involvement of intracranial nerves were the most common symptoms. Over 90 % of the tumors originated from sphenoid and temporal bones. On MRI, very low signal on T2-weighted images were found highly indicative of GCTs of the temporal bone. Univariate analysis revealed that extent of tumor resection and post-operative radiation therapy (RT) were prognostic factors significantly influencing the survival of the patients. We concluded that complete tumor resection is the optimal goal in treating this disease and adjuvant RT should be given once tumor residual is inevitable.