Thank You Michele!  Very interesting indeed.  I downloaded both the full article and the abstract, and will read it more thoroughly.  I'm so glad they are doing this sort of research. 

judyette

Yep, six years (almost seven) out from radiation and it's been that way ever since. Hardly think about it anymore.

Sorry to hear your girlfriend is in the club. You'll find people will advocate for various positions here, and one of the weird thing about these tumors is that there are such wide options for what to do/not do! I opted for Middle Fossa surgery.  Here was my reasoning:
1. While surgery cause immediate risk of losing all hearing, it also gave the best chance at long term hearing preservation. My hearing was a little better, and my tumor a little smaller (1.2 cm) so I was told about 60% chance of saving my hearing, which is thankfully what happened.
2. I wanted the tumor "out."  I recently had my five year follow up MRI and everything looked good, so I don't have to go back. I don't have to worry about  recurrence, etc.
One important question is to ask how often the doctor/surgeon does middle fossa surgery. it's important to have a surgical center who does AN tumors as often as possible.
Good luck!

Hello Everyone:

Thank you so very much for your assistance in advance.  My girlfriend has a unilateral 1.4 CM AN tumor in her inner right ear close to the brain.  I am writing on her behalf because she is an English student.  It seems to be an AN, but small chance it is Facial Nerve tumor.  Girlfriend has lost 40% of hearing in her right ear so far.  She has pretty strong tinitus, she says it is like a rumbling sound, pretty constant.  No facial nerve paralysis or facial symptoms of any sort.  She had one MRI about nine months ago and a second one 30 days ago.  The size is unchanged, but they noted her hearing fell by 20% in that time frame, from 80% down to 60% remaining. In the past two weeks, she said she might possibly have felt a small bit of occasional dizziness.  She seems to balance fine and never has to grab the walls to balance.  The doctors predict a 40 to 50% chance of losing all hearing in right ear after surgery.  So they have about a 50 to 60% chance of saving her current hearing in the right ear.  Left ear is normal.  Conversely, they predict she will lose all hearing in right ear within one to four years if she does nothing.  Three out of four neurosurgeons want to do a Middle Fossa approach.  But they are reluctant on recommending doing surgery or watch-and-wait.  They say they "could do surgery for the preservation of hearing" but leave it up to her.  Based on the above, would you recommend surgery or watch and wait?    Thank you again. 

I had my CK done in Perth Australia almost three years ago now...so far so good. My hearing and balance seem fine. Have had no side effects really except I get occasional nerve pain in ear which I had before treatment. Also my sleep is still an issue tho that might be genetic as my sisters also have. I continue to have daily ginger, boswellia, bromelain and D3, propolis and curcumin. I exercise every day in gym and play chess against my super clever mathematician husband to stay brain sharp. So no cognitive issues. Full of energy. So I can recommend CK so far... I had three sessions for 2 cm in a bad location. There were cystic components but they disappeared.