ANA Discussion Forum
Treatment Options => Radiation / Radiosurgery => Topic started by: doinoc on April 05, 2009, 06:37:12 pm
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I was wondering if anyone has come across studies or info on if a predisposition to cancers in the family if radiation treatments can affect them in anyway to bring on the cancer. I don't know if this is a stupid question but its been on my mind. My mom's side of the family has so much history of breast, lymphoma,malinoma and stomach cancer just going back to my Nana's generation. So I didn't know if this is a thing i should think about if i decide GK instead of surgery. My dr says its time to do something. i myself have had 2 benign lymphs removed to date because of the history. Any help our there on this one?? thanks.
I'm new to asking in this forum although I've read a lot of your discussions. You are all so friendly sounding. and the info you bring is awesome. thanks...
Deb
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Hi Deb,
Your question is one for the professionals, radiation oncologists in particular. That is exactly what they are trained to evaluate when working with a patient.
For online research, you could certainly ask this question on the Cyberknife forum (they talk about Gammaknife too). That forum has two practicing and experienced oncologists who freely answer questions from patients. I would much rather you get an answer from Dr. Medbery or one of his colleagues. I imagine the answer depends somewhat on the particular history of cancer in the family, whether any have had brain cancer, and so on. Gammaknife delivers a very isolated dose of radiation, so it may not be a significant risk, but you need to discuss this with an oncologist.
Here is the CK patient forum: http://www.cyberknife.com/Forum.aspx. Dr. Medbery logs on as radsrus (Rads-R-Us).
Steve
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Thank you so much for the link...I did just that and asked and the dr said it shouldn't be a deciding factor since the risk of this is so little.
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Deb, from both the (considerable) research I've read and what I've been told by Dr. Steven Chang (esteemed neurosurgeon and CyberKnife practitioner at Stanford U. Medical Center), the risk that radiation treatments for an AN would cause a malignancy is no greater than the risk to the general population of getting cancer. CK and GK are very similar in their delivery.
The reason for the low risk is that the radiation is split up into roughly 80 to 140 beams that arrive at the tumor from all directions. Thus, the tumor gets a big dose where the radiation beams all converge on it, but other tissue that the radiation passes through on the way to the tumor only gets 1/80 (at most) to 1/140 (at the least) of the radiation dose that the tumor itself receives. Not to minimize the risk of intentionally and directly irradiating the brain, but it's good to remember that anyone who flies in a commercial airliner also gets a good dose of cosmic radiation each time they fly. That is to say, almost nobody escapes receiving some radiation these days, even if they avoid getting X-rays.
All that said, there are often side effects from receiving radiosurgery, although these are usually short-lived. I felt pretty wiped out after getting CK (for only a couple months, though, and I reacted stronger than most people to the treatment). But the risk of getting cancer from CK, GK or any of the other "flavors" of FSR is so little that it should not be a factor in your decision of which treatment to have.
Best wishes,
Tumbleweed
P.S. I'm now 9 months post-CK treatment, and I feel better now than I did before getting treatment. It might be a rocky road at first, but it does get better pretty quickly. I am a firm believer in radiosurgery and, in particular, radiotherapy ( the latter being the more accurate term for multiple, fractionated radiation treatments).
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hey tumblewood thank you for the info. I'v been advised to GK 1 big dose since i have no hearing to preserve. You stated you had fatigue throughout the treatment. I was wondering about that with one big dose how that would affect me. I also have pretty much constant unsteadiness and was wondering if that would be worse after treatment. So far I;ve been fortunate that it hasnt' interfeared with my work except for a few times in the past 7 years but now its beginning to interfere more and more. anyway thank you for the info and i would appreciate any more at any time
Deb
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Hello Deb,
I am almost 1 year post SRS. Your question is one that I asked several doctors as I was considering my eventual treatment approach. With the exception of 1 rather arrogant surgeon in San Antonio, everyone I consulted agreed that there was no evidence of any sort of causal link between radiosurgery and later cancer development. The one exception I mentioned earlier made the statement that "the only thing radiation could do for a benign tumorrsuch as an AN was to make it maligant." I asked him for the research he based that statement on and after much huffing and puffing he admitted that as far as he knew there was only 1 rather old, very limited study that made that claim. He could not produce the study or even give me enough information that I could find it myself. Of course I understood that he was a surgeon and wanted to pursue surgical options rather than any other. Needless to say I opted to consult with and be treated by others. Good luck and keep us posted as to your progress.
Richard
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thank you Richard, So you doing well now?
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Deb, in answer to your question about disequilibrium, Dr. Chang told me that the symptoms you have going into treatment are the ones that might get worse as a result of the associated cranial nerves getting irradiated. Those side effects are usually short-lived, however. But if I were you, I'd expect to be dizzier after treatment, and let yourself be happily surprised if you're not. I was about 20% dizzier after treatment compared to beforehand. I now feel like I'm back to where I started before treatment in that regard, or possibly a little better (how I feel varies from day to day). A few people on this forum reported having a rough time for a year or so after getting CK, and then experienced a rather remarkable improvement. So, radiation can be rough in the short term (or not -- some people breeze right through it) but in many cases yields very satisfactory results months later.
I hope that helps,
TW
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Hello again Deb,
As far as the AN is concerned, I'm doing well. Hearing on the left was gone before the SRS so that was not an issue. For the first three months following the procedure, I had absolutely no energy but that has pretty well passed. No other probelms to report. I know I am one of the fortunate few in that regard. My 1 year MRI is coming up in May and we'll see what the status f the AN is then. Thanks for asking.
Richard