My Surgery Date is set ...really scared

[Sue]

Hi

You can have, depending on the size of the AN, radiosurgery via Gamma Knife or Cyberknife or other names that all do basically the same thing, which is destroy the AN with radiation.  If an AN is closer to 3.0 cm or bigger, or the location is very near or on the brainstem, surgery is the preferred choice by most doctors.  Sometimes a large tumor will be "debulked", or whittled down in size via surgery and the remainder will get "nuked" to kill all of the cells.  So, no, not all surgeries include radiation in the treatment plan.  If the surgeons feel that they have gotten all of the cells, then there is no need for additional treatment.  This is why it's call microsurgery, as the surgeons use a microscope to make sure they get all the evil little cells!  Tough and tedious work, and my hat's off to the fine doctors who do this kind of surgery.

Hope my simple descriptions help in some way. 

Sue in Vancouver, USA

[leapyrtwins]

Rhonda -

Sue's correct.  Not all AN surgeries require follow up with radiation.  My docs (neurotologist and neurosurgeon) were confident they removed my entire tumor, so in my case, radiation wasn't necessary.

Usually surgery followed by radiation is used for large sized ANs where the doctors surgically remove part of the tumor and then "kill" the rest with radiation.  Surgery followed by radiation is typically used when the docs think that surgery alone will compromise the facial nerve, so they opt to remove what they safely can and then radiated what they didn't remove.

Jan

[Jim Scott]

Rhonda:

Jan and Sue are correct.  Surgery + radiation is only used on large ANs and is certainly not mandatory.  My neurosurgeon opted to go this route for various reasons specific to my case.  I agreed.  The result was excellent so it turned out to be a good decision. However, each AN patient presents a different situation and one size does not fit all, as it were.  I'm sure your doctor decided on surgery, alone, in your best interests.  Besides, radiation is always an option after surgery, even if it isn't planned in advance, as mine was. 

I hope these messages both explain things as well as help to reassure you.  We try. 

Jim