Types of Skull Base Tumors

Penn Head and Neck Cancer oncologists and otorhinolaryngologists have expertise in diagnosing and treating all types of benign and malignant skull base tumors. Skull base tumors we treat include:

Benign skull base tumors:

  • Acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma)
  • Craniopharyngioma
  • Glomus tumors (also called paraganglioma, glomus tympanicum, glomus jugulare, and carotid body tumor)
  • Meningioma
  • Neuroma (trigeminal neuroma, vagal schwannoma)
  • Paraganglioma
  • Pituitary tumor (usually benign), most are pituitary adenoma
  • Inverted papillomas
  • Tumors in the soft tissues and bones of the head, upper face and sinuses

Malignant skull base tumors:

  • Carcinomas:
    • adenoid cystic carcinoma
    • adenocarcinoma carcinoma
    • basal cell carcinoma
    • sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC)
    • sinonasal neuroendocrine carcinoma (SNEC)
    • squamous cell carcinoma
    • Chordoma
    • Craniopharyngioma
    • Esthesioneuroblastoma (olfactory neuroblastoma)
    • Hemangiopericytomas
    • Meningioma
    • Mucosal melanoma
    • Paraganglioma
    • Primary CNS Lymphoma (PCNSL)
    • Sarcomas
      • chondrosarcoma
      • rhabdomyosarcoma
      • osteosarcoma
      • Soft tissue sarcomas
      • Skull base carcinoid tumor (neuroendocrine carcinoma)