On 9/19/2006 Shannond wrote:
I can't help but wonder if my dad's GBM4 was a result of an undiagnosed acoustic neuroma (begnin, treatable tumor) from years before. I say this because of the tinnitus (ringing in ears) and unilateral hearing loss he experienced 6 years ago? Does anyone know if it is possible for AN to turn into GBM4? Shouldn't the dr. who tested his hearing 6 yrs ago have sent him for an MRI due to these symptoms? I would certainly think so. At this point, I'm confident that it would have saved his life.
Shannnond:
I've read quite a bit about acoustic neuroma after being diagnosed with this 8 months ago. As far as I've read, there are no reports of spontaneous transformation of AN to GBM4. However, there are multiple case reports of patients who have been treated with radiation therapy who either develop GBM4 or experience malignant tranformation of their previously benign AN. Still, these case reports are relatively few in comparison to the number of radiation treated patients. There are multiple, large studies that show neither of these bad scenarios (University of Pittsburgh, for example)--but these results are short term and medium term. There are no long term studies available yet. The main problem is that physicians are not required to report their numbers to a central data bank that can be monitored over time. Hope that helps.
Dufreyne