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Author Topic: surgery with residual tumor radiated, but no necrosis 15 months later  (Read 1727 times)

kelli

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surgery with residual tumor radiated, but no necrosis 15 months later
« on: June 17, 2009, 07:34:58 pm »
hi everyone,
i am wondering if anyone else has had surgery followed by cyberknife for the residual tumor and has no signs of necrosis 15 months after cyberknife?  I am a little concerned and have had 2 MRIs in the past 3 months and the tumor is still 16mm by 6mm and has not shown any necrosis yet.  Is this unusual?  shouldn't there be necrosis this long after the radiation?  I am getting scared i will have to have more treatments.  Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and wishing everyone healing and happiness,
kelli
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Diagnosed 3cm AN January 2007
Tried holistic treatments for one year. Finally had posterior fossa at Kaiser Redwood City with Dr. Nutik on Dec 20. Followed by cyberknife at Stanford in April for residual tumor.
Thank you Dr. Nutik!

sgerrard

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Re: surgery with residual tumor radiated, but no necrosis 15 months later
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2009, 11:19:15 pm »
My radiated AN has never shown any necrosis. The important measure of success in radiation treatment is no growth. If it hasn't grown at all in 15 months, you are doing just fine. Don't worry about it.

Steve
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8 mm left AN June 2007,  CK at Stanford Sept 2007.
Hearing lasted a while, but left side is deaf now.
Right side is weak too. Life is quiet.

mk

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Re: surgery with residual tumor radiated, but no necrosis 15 months later
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2009, 07:34:55 am »
As Steve pointed out, it is not necessary to see necrosis on the MRI to confirm that the treatment has worked. There are many cases in the literature where necrosis is not seen, or it is transient, i.e. seen on one MRI and then disappears. It is possible that the "darkening" that we usually associate with necrosis happens between MRIs and then goes away, so that you don't catch it.
In any case, the important "metric" for success of any radiation treatment is control, that is no further growth. Seeing the darkening (and even better, shrinkage) is nice and reassuring, but not necessary. So from that point of view it seems that you are doing fine and you shouldn't worry about it.

Marianna
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GK on April 23rd 2008 for 2.9 cm AN at Toronto Western Hospital. Subsequent MRIs showed darkening initially, then growth. Retrosigmoid surgery on April 26th, 2011 with Drs. Akagami and Westerberg at Vancouver General Hospital. Graduallly lost hearing after GK and now SSD but no other issues.
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