The Natural Growth Rate of Skull Base Meningiomas Compared With Non-Skull Base Meningiomas.

In the present study, the authors assessed the differences in natural growth rates between skull base and non-skull base meningiomas by meta-analysis. Studies investigating meningioma growth rate were compiled from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Chinese Biomedical Literature database, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the collected literature were conducted using Stata 12.0 software. A total of 7 observational cohort studies, including 361 patients with untreated meningiomas, were included in the study. Meta-analysis showed that the weighted mean difference for absolute growth rate (years), relative growth rate (years), and doubling time (month) were 0.42 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.20-0.64, P <.0001), 1.08 (95%CI: 0.85-1.32, P <.0001), and -0.56 [95%CI: (-0.78)-(-0.33), P <.0001)] respectively. These findings indicate that the natural growth rate of skull base meningioma is less than that of non-skull base meningioma.