Help

My mother had WBR and gamma knife on 6 brain tumors eight months ago. Today her MRI showed that all had grown. Is that possible? Can they retreat with gamma knife. I don't even know where to begin researching. Please help.

[mickey]

wbr did not work for me

[StephN]

Sometimes they can retreat with Gamma Knife, but I am not sure of the exact circumstances for this. I had Gamma KNife and so far so good, but not WBR up to now.
There are a lot of links on brain mets in the other areas of this site.

[Joe]

Please, we need more detail !!! Dates of the procedures, tumor sizes at time of DX. Rate of growth.

The rate of growth is important. Sometimes neucrotic, or dying tumors will grow slightly when they are in their death throes.

Read Christine's story on our "Communities" page.
http://www.her2support.org/story2.htm

Regards
Joe

WBR began in February of last year. The six tumors were quite large--ranging from 5 cm to 1 cm. After WBR, they all shrunk in half. In May, Gamma Knife was done to knock everything that was left out. Followup scans didn't show much change in the size of the tumors after Gamma Knife, maybe shrinkage by just a hair, but the Neurosurgeon said that that was fine. He said usually you still see the "tumor", but it's really dead tissue. In some cases you see shrinkage or disappearance. Anyway, this last scan showed slight enlargement. We haven't heard anything yet, but maybe it could be necrosis? It seems bizarre that GK did not work at all on all 6 lesions! That can't be right. Also, you mentioned rate of growth--so this would be 8 months since treatment with GK. Is that fast or slow? Thank you!

[StephN]

Hi again -
My largest tumor of 3 cm is still visible after 1 year post GK. It has shrunk some and I will find out what the MRI done today will show. But I was told to expect the larger one to be visible but dead as it takes the brain tissue a long time to absorb the dead cells.

One of the main things to look at is whether your Mom is having any symptoms and what those might be. If little or no symptoms, I would take that as a good sign.

[Joe]

By rate of growth I mean millimeters as opposed to centimeters. Brain tumors are generally quite agressive and grow fast. If the growth is only 1 -3 mm, the tumor may be neucrotic.

You may want to post on the Cyberknife Society website where posts are answered by actual radiation oncologists. There is a procedure called Fractionated stereoradiation where tumors are treated over several sessions.

The Cyberknife procedure can perform this function.

Go the the link below to our Brain Tumor page. There are links to the other sites there as well as much additional information on brain tumors.

http://www.her2support.org/a/newher2_002.htm

Regards
Joe

A big thank you to you all. The doctor's supposed to call today. Thank you again.