Husband and wife with acoustic neuromas!

[moe]

Sam,
Speaking of husband and wife with acoustic neuromas,

That was an interesting post. Did you press the wrong post?! Anyway, Sorry to hear about Daisy. I know where this belongs- the  thread where Liz lost her lab....

[pgka97]

Hi, While we are on the track of environmental causes has anyone worked for McDonald's in the 90's with the "Qing" ovens.  I worked for McD for 30 years and personally know of 5 people with varying forms of brain tumors.  I have been one of the lucky ones with AN.
 Just curious
Paula

[Sam Rush]

Moe

That was the correct thread. Someone brought up the subject of Sam Rush's dog. re: environmental factors, and I was just giving a follow-up

[annamaria]

My husband is a mathematician.

He says that while the chance is quoted as 1/100,000 PER YEAR, the lifelong probability of getting AN is 1 in 1,000 (that would be 100x1/100,000, assuming one lived 100 years); that means that if you know 1,000 people (say, at work or in your company), then 1 person would have an instance of an AN.  Now, with that, the probability that during a lifetime two people had ANs would be 1/(1000x1000), or 1 in one million.  That means that there are, statistically, about 300 couples in the U.S. that have such issue, looking at a lifetime. (Btw, my husband's company has 1,600 people and there are 2 people with brain tumors there -- it's an information company, so no environmental issues are involved.) [if you assumed a lifitime to be 80 years, you can re-run the numbers above... slightly lower probabilities]

Recent medical research (from Europe) seems to be stating that the incidence is actually higher, perhaps 5/100,000.  Then the lifelong probability of getting AN is 1 in 200.

AnnaMaria

[Mickey]

 Annamaria, very interesting and nicely put! It makes sense to me. Mickey

[yardtick]

Wow AnnaMaria, your husband is brilliant!  Thanks I actually understood all of that and it made sense   

Anne Marie

[free2be]

FWW...my doc just told me last week, that the statistics are much higher now; he said closer to 1/5000. I thought that was a lot compared to 1/100,000, but I didn't ask more about it.
 

[CHD63]

IMO part of this has to do with earlier detection of ANs now with the advanced technology in MRIs.  Many ANs are being found much earlier, before they have done extensive damage.  The stats may be changing temporarily because of that.

Clarice

[Brookes]

FWW...my doc just told me last week, that the statistics are much higher now; he said closer to 1/5000. I thought that was a lot compared to 1/100,000, but I didn't ask more about it.
 

Did you forget a zero?  1 in 50,000 would be double but 1 in 5,000 - 20 times the previously understood frequency - is statistically a MASSIVE jump.  It implies 60,000 new diagnoses each year.  Yikes! 

[nancyann]

Coincidence, environmental ??  I can tell you I've had 3 benign tumors & no one in my family has had this problem, or in my neighborhood.
However, that doesn't rule out that it can be random & also due to something environmental.  
Very interesting.  In the meantime,  I wish you all the best.
Always good thoughts,  Nancy

[satman]

I don't worry about my ex-husband getting an AN because I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a brain anyway!

girl you are somethin else 
priceless is all i can say , priceless !