Long-term survival in patients with long-segment complex meningiomas occluding the dural venous sinuses: illustrative cases

BACKGROUND: Invasive sagittal sinus meningiomas are difficult tumors to cure by resection alone. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) can be used as an adjuvant management strategy to improve tumor control after incomplete resection. OBSERVATIONS: The authors reported the long-term retrospective follow-up of two patients whose recurrent parasagittal meningiomas eventually occluded their superior sagittal sinus. Both patients underwent staged radiosurgery and fractionated radiation therapy to achieve tumor control that extended to 20 years after their initial surgery. After initial subtotal resection of meningiomas that had invaded major cerebral venous sinuses, adjuvant radiosurgery was performed to enhance local tumor control. Over time, adjacent tumor progression required repeat SRS and fractionated radiation therapy to boost long-term tumor response. Staged multimodality intervention led to extended survival in these patients with otherwise unresectable meningiomas. LESSONS: Multimodality management with radiosurgery and fractionated radiation therapy was associated with long-term survival of two patients with otherwise surgically incurable and invasive meningiomas of the dural venous sinuses.