Scar tissue or tumour

[1Anj1]

My wife had a large left frontal lobe glioma operated on in Dec 2016. The neuro surgeon was convinced he had taken it all out plus extra to be on the safe side. We had CT scan as a follow up and there is an area of concern.

However the neurosurgeons cannot definitively say whether this new area is a new tumour or scar tissue unless they go back in and do a biopsy. Surely there must be a way of non invasively telling whether we have a tumour or scar tissue. Anyone got any experience in this delicate area????

[hedgehoggy]

Hi Anj1

I am slightly in the same situation. I have joined on here but I am also in the Roy Castle lung community as my brain tumours came secondary from the lungs.

I had my brain op March 2015. Because I had smaller tumours on the other side of my head they used SRS. Stereotactic surgery or Gamma Knife but with no cutting just beams. I had a mask made for me which I took home.

I had no side effects but 2017 I now have swelling around a very small tumour which had practically disapeared 4 months ago with the stereo.

The same question my Onc is asking is, it left over from the stereo treatment necrosis? Or the little bit that has been left there is it now active again as it appears to be slightly larger since my last scan. I may have to go back on steroids as i seem to go up and down every 3 months, but I am awaiting as to what will be decided in the next week from Cambridge..

Not sure which part of the country you are in, but mention if SRS can be done without going in again cutting if your wife's tumours are quite small.

I hope this is of some help to you and your wife. If you need to ask anything else let me know. Trying to find my papers but mine was right parietal?

Best wishes

Hoggy

[1Anj1]

Hi hoggy,

Thanks for the reply. I hope things go well for you.

We are based in Leeds. There is no gamma knife or proton beam up here yet. The surgeons want to do a contrast MRI every three months to see if there is any change. They operated on 3-4 people last year suspecting a growth only to find it was scar tissue after doing a biopsy.

So we are just in that wait and see bracket. If there is a change then we will push for the gamma knife or the proton beam to get rid of the anomaly.

I would have thought that someone somewhere would have figured out how to differentiate tumour regrow the from a scar tissue.

Anyway keep us posted on how you get on.

Kind regards,

Anjham