Malignant epithelioid schwannoma of the mandible and the skull base.

A rare case of malignant schwannoma is described. The patient's main presentation was that of pain. The patient had no other symptom, particularly that related to the space-occupying lesion in the skull base that also was filling the pterygoid space. A 5-year cure was achieved by combined therapy of radiation and radical surgery. The rarity of these cases makes it impossible to do a comparative analysis including randomized clinical trials for outcome studies to find the optimal treatment for each patient.