Cystic AN tumor and best course of treatment

[kimj]

Hi,
I’m curious if anyone’s been told that their AN tumor was partly “cystic” in consistency and therefore, radiosurgery was not the best course of treatment. If this describes your tumor what course of treatment did you undertake? Radiosurgery? Microsurgery? Both, as in debulking followed by radiation?

My tumor is about 2 cm and over 50% cystic. The doctor says radiosurgery would in effect “boil” the tumor which would lead to increased inflammation during the dying process. This would put more pressure on the nerves and surrounding tissues, which would exacerbate the symptoms I’m already experiencing. Does this explanation make sense to you based on your experience? My doctor is advocating for RS surgery. I'm still trying to decide on best course of treatment.

Thanks,
Kim

[arizonajack]

I’m curious if anyone’s been told that their AN tumor was partly “cystic” in consistency and therefore, radiosurgery was not the best course of treatment. If this describes your tumor what course of treatment did you undertake? Radiosurgery? Microsurgery? Both, as in debulking followed by radiation?

There was another recent post with a similar question:

http://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=19317.0;topicseen

In my response I posted 3 articles regarding cystic ANs. They might help you.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11121639

http://thejns.org/doi/pdf/10.3171/2012.6.FOCUS12200

http://www.sid.ir/En/VEWSSID/J_pdf/118920080408.pdf

My tumor is about 2 cm and over 50% cystic. The doctor says radiosurgery would in effect “boil” the tumor which would lead to increased inflammation during the dying process. This would put more pressure on the nerves and surrounding tissues, which would exacerbate the symptoms I’m already experiencing. Does this explanation make sense to you based on your experience? My doctor is advocating for RS surgery. I'm still trying to decide on best course of treatment.

I had Gamma Knife on 1/22/13 for a 1.2cm and had my follow up MRI on 8/1/13 which showed a slight swelling to 1.3cm.

It's now been 10 months since Gamma Knife and I have not had any exacerbation of prior symptoms during that time. In fact, my balance has improved quite a bit although still not perfect.

However, others have reported some difficulties after Gamma Knife and yet others have reported difficulties after surgery.

Your doctor might be recommending what he knows. A radiation specialist may have a different take on the matter.

Unfortunately, there is no way to predict the outcome of any one alternative because everybody reacts differently to their ANs depending on a variety of factors.

It's always best to explore all the alternatives and pick what you think is best for you.

[kimj]

Thank you "AJ" for the links to the articles. I'll check them out after I send this reply. I also checked out the thread you reference under treatment options and found it very enlightening. Not sure how I missed that one as I had been searching for any discussion around this topic. I'll get better at this I'm sure.