**4. Conclusions**

Benign anterior skull base tumors include meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, craniopharyngiomas, and vestibular schwannomas. As an adjuvant therapy to

*Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Benign Skull Base Tumors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102468*

surgery or when surgical treatment carries too high a risk of complications, a highly precise focused radiation, known as fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy (FSRT) or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) can be delivered to the tumor. Treatment modalities include Gamma Knife for SRS, LINAC for FSRT/SRS, Cyberknife for SRS or hypo fractionated FSRT, and more recently, proton beam therapy. FSRT in particular combines the high accuracy of stereotactic radiosurgery and the benefit of fractionation. Existing studies include systematic analysis of complications and risk factors FSRT/SRS of tumors with localizations relating to vision, hormone-secreting regions, cerebral vasculature, and hearing. Paying attention to risk reduction is extremely important to prevent complications. Existing studies provide evidence of good long-term tumor control for benign tumors of the skull base. Upweighting the risks against surgical complications and uncontrolled tumor growth, stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery appear to be relatively safe as a treatment of patients with benign anterior skull base tumors. However, improved dose planning techniques may be able to reduce the incidence of side effects further. Further studies with very long-time follow-up including the potential for malignancy are needed.
