Are ANs forever?

[route66]

After having translab surgery in June, 2002 and having a 5 year MRI in June, 2007, my surgeon at the House Ear Clinic told me that I was considered 'cured' and that there was no need for additional follow-up MRIs.  He also indicated that had I had a re-growth, I would have been the first patient at House with a tumor under 3 cm undergoing translab surgery to have a re-growth.

[leapyrtwins]

Route 66 -

Very interesting.

I'm definitely no doctor, but I've always heard that you should have annual MRIs for the first 5 years and then "periodically" thereafter.  I don't know what "periodically" translates to when dealing with ANs; but I've never heard that you should just stop getting MRIs completely.  Maybe the doctors I've spoken to are just overly conservative?

As others have said, regrowth is not common but it does happen.  I'm with Lori - I'm not going to live in fear that my AN may regrow, but I think a periodic MRI would do me good 

Jan

[Jim Scott]

Following my surgery and radiation in 2006, my brilliant but cautious neurosurgeon has kept me on a schedule of semi-annual MRI scans.  After my next MRI (in June) I'll move to having an MRI on an annual basis for five years.  Then, I'll likely have an MRI every two years, possibly five.  I don't expect to ever just stop having MRI scans anytime in the near future.  They're painless, (I'm not claustrophobic) don't involve radiation and can spot a re-growth early, which is, unfortunately, a small but still-valid possibility AN patients have to live with if they're going to be realistic.  I'm another AN patient that doesn't lose any sleep worrying about a re-growth (especially since I've seen signs of AN necrosis on my MRI scans).  Still, I prefer to be realistic and that means having MRI scans on some sort of schedule, even if that becomes twice per decade.  It's worth it to me for 'peace of mind'. 

Jim

[Kathleen_Mc]

Lori: No to can't develope NFII, you either have it or you don't but until you die without developing another tumor they never will completely rule it out. There is a blood test to determine if you have the gene but there has been false negatives with that. MOST people with NFII are able to find a family member who has it or developes skin changes indicating it etc. but there are some people who don't and it's just with the developement of another AN that the diagnoses is made.