Radiation-induced meningioma: with review of literature.

A case of tentorial meningioma occurring 12 years after radiation therapy for a verified craniopharyngioma is presented. The pertinent literature is reviewed and it is concluded that irradiation of the brain may be responsible for the late development of intracranial meningiomas, which are less common, however, than sarcomas. A long survival after irradiation, "misregeneration" in the chronic inflammatory processes induced by irradiation, and an immunodeficiency caused by irradiation and other factors, may play some role in developing oncogenesis.