The Nonsurgical Approaches in Cerebellopontine Angle Tumors

The cerebellopontine angle is the most common location for tumors originating in the posterior fossa. The most common tumors at the cerebellopontine angle are vestibular schwannomas and meningiomas. Treatment options for cerebellopontine angle tumors are observation, microsurgery, or radiosurgery. For small vestibular schwannomas and meningiomas of the cerebellopontine angle, stereotactic radiosurgery has emerged as an alternative treatment option with less morbidity. Stereotactic radiosurgery uses external radiation to precisely deliver a therapeutic dose to a small target area while minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues. It can be delivered with either Gamma Knife or linear accelerator-based radiosurgery. This chapter discusses the expanding role of stereotactic radiosurgery for vestibular schwannomas and cerebellopontine angle meningiomas with the existing literature.