ANA Discussion Forum
Watch and Wait => For those in the 'watch and wait' status => Topic started by: jsanders1379 on November 26, 2012, 11:34:57 am
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Hi-I'm new to the group-I had a bone marrow transplant 16 yrs. ago and part of the prep was high dose chemo and full body radiation (enough to totally destroy my diseased bone marrow). I was told that because of the radiation, I was at greater risk for future tumors, esp. of the head. I'm wondering if this AN I have will grow faster because of the previous radiation...anyone else have prior radiation? thanks-Jeanne in Colorado
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Hi Jeanne .....
I had prior radiation, as well, but not for the same reasons, nor exactly like yours.
I had massive ionizing radiation to my naso-pharyngeal area following a tonsillectomy many, many years ago (they quit doing that shortly after I was one of the unlucky ones!). My doctors all feel as though my AN was a result of that exposure.
My original AN was a rapidly growing one. In all fairness, I did not connect my previous radiation with it so it was never mentioned to my original neurosurgeon as being part of my history. He was going for hearing preservation and did a retrosigmoid approach (partially saving my hearing). He assured me he had removed the entire tumor, but subsequent MRIs proved otherwise. Three years later the "residual changes" had grown to 1.3 cm so it was surgically removed a second time ..... this time via translabyrinthine approach. That was 18 months ago and so far my MRIs have been clean! Yaaaaaay! Planning to keep it that way!
Please understand that because ANs are relatively rare, there are very few studies on correlations between radiation and specifically ANs. There is a known connection with other types of brain tumors ..... in fact they are called radiation-induced tumors.
I have no idea how many Gys you were given, of course, and that apparently does make a difference. With today's Gamma Knife and Cyberknife treatments for ANs, the dose is way smaller (and greatly targeted) than when they first began doing it a couple decades ago.
Is there a way to find out how much radiation you had?
Feel free to PM me if you would like to talk privately.
Many thoughts and prayers.
Clarice