6 month post cyber MRI question

[ROCKYB]

Hi all I did cyberknife in June at Stanford I did my 6 month mri  follow up last week and the it did not grow but there was no sign of necrosis. should I be worried it did not work or is it to soon to tell thanks.

[sgerrard]

Hi Rocky,

I got about the same result. Nothing to worry about, especially if you have a small AN in the first place. The second person to read my MRI said it shrank 1mm, which made me feel better, which is probably why they said it. Now you wait till next time!

Steve

[Mark]

I would tend to agree with Steve. Who was your doctor and what did they say? I assume it would have been Chang and he usually would not be ambiguous about interpreting the results with a patient from my experience. Otherwise, I think it's important to keep two things in mind .

First, all AN's react to the radiation differently based on how often the cells replicate and the necrosis shows up as the damaged cells die when they can't reproduce.

Second, MRI's are a snap shot in time. The cycle is generally from white to darker and spotted to white again ( scarred over). See point 1 for how fast or slow that happens. There is nothing magical about 6 months. Some people see the AN in the dark necrosis stage, others miss it entirely and see it already starting to scar over, some don't see anything significant at that point. As long as it didn't grow, I would wait to see what the 1 year MRI showed before becoming concerned. Certainly by that point evidence of necrosis should be notable from my understanding

Mark

[Tumbleweed]

First, all AN's react to the radiation differently based on how often the cells replicate and the necrosis shows up as the damaged cells die when they can't reproduce.

Mark

This makes total sense to me. Before I got treated, my AN had gone through a very fast growth spurt. Perhaps that's why my 5-month MRI is showing such extensive necrosis. I guess it's my reward for putting up with such a fast-growing tumor before receiving treatment.

Stanford has about a 98% success rate at controlling tumor growth with CK, so the odds are in your favor, RockyB. Try to put this out of your mind for the next 6 months and know that everything that can be done has been done and by the most experienced hands in the country. I'm confident your next MRI will show necrosis.

Best wishes,
Tumbleweed

[mk]

As others have already mentioned, darkening (aka necrosis) does not always happen. Of course, we all like to see some darkening, because it gives us a confort level that the AN has responded to the radiation. But as far as the doctors are concerned, they don't always expect it and they are not worried if it doesn't happen. The important criterion is long term control of the growth.

Marianna