Reading about regrowth

[LarryS]

This is LarryS again. I have been reading so much about the tumors regrowing. Has anyone had the surgery and had the whole tumor removed and then experienced regrowth or does this happen when they only remove part of the tumor. I am still waiting on call from the neurosurgeon regarding my surgery. My wife and kids want me to go ahead and have the surgery soon.

[Boppie]

Larry, My doctor never gave me the idea that a tumor could be positively 100% removed.  But regrowth is not common, even though we read a lot of it here.  AN forum posters are reporting for a small percentage of all of those out there who have no regrowth at all. The 2 month post op statement I got was "Yes, we think we got it all, but we will do follow-up MRI's and keep a watch until we are sure".  I will live with that.  A lot depends on AN size as you might have read.

[Jim Scott]

My neurosurgeon explained that he could not remove 100% of my large (4.5 cm) tumor and that I would need (fractionalized) radiation treatments, some months post-surgery.  Recent MRI's indicate that he was only able to remove about 50% of the tumor, but he did avoid doing any nerve damage, one of my biggest fears, pre-op, so it's a trade-off of sorts.

I'm currently undergoing the fractionalized radiation treatments (26 separate treatments, done on a 5-day-a-week basis) and I'm praying that (a) I suffer no serious side effects) and, (b) that the radiation kills all the remaining tumor cells, preventing re-growth, which is the goal.

Frankly, judging from the statistics, re-growth is a relatively minor concern, especially with surgery and radiation on the same tumor.

[jcinma]

Hi Larry-
I have been told the chance of regrowth is less than 1%.  I was one of those lucky ones-I had surgery back in 96 and was told it was a total removal.  In 2005 I had surgery to debulk the regrowth and followed it up with FSR (with no serious side effects)  I strongly suggest to anyone with AN regardless of the treatment they choose to have annual MRI's done for years afterwards.
Jane

[Kathleen_Mc]

Larry: I was told post-op in 1990 that they had removed all the tumor, when I returned to the same doctor in 1999 for consultation about the regrowth he said that he may have missed a cell or two the first time around or I just grew an entire new tumor (but more likely that he missed a cell or two). The chances of regrowth are very small when they believe they "got it all". (from what I understand)
Kathleen