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78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2007, Munich

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Observations of tumor growth of vestibular schwannomas

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  • corresponding author Anna Papadopoulou - Center for Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck and Skull-base Surgery, Athens, Greece
  • Apostolos Papadopoulos - Center for Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck and Skull-base Surgery, Athens, Greece
  • Konstantina Karra - Center for Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck and Skull-base Surgery, Athens, Greece
  • Nikolaos Marangos - Center for Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck and Skull-base Surgery, Athens, Greece

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 78th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Munich, 16.-20.05.2007. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2007. Doc07hno113

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2007/07hno113.shtml

Published: August 8, 2007

© 2007 Papadopoulou et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: Growth of vestibular schwannomas is reported as very slow in the recent years so that a waiting strategy with imaging control of tumor growth is often recommended.

Method: Over the last 10 years 430 radiologically confirmed vestibular schwannomas have been recorded. In 17 cases of small intracanalicular tumors with normal hearing or patients older than 65 years no surgery or radiation but yearly MRI control was recommended. Observation period exceeded 2 to 7 years so far.

Results: In most of the cases no growth could be detected within the follow-up interval and there was no change in PTA. However, significant tumor growth was found in three cases, in one with deterioration of hearing. In all three cases tumors left the internal auditory canal and reached the lateral cysterna and the brainstem within one year.

Conclusion: Although vestibular schwannomas grow very slowly, their biological behaviour is unpredictable. There is a potential of rapid growth within months without audiological or any other prognostic factors. Thus, MRI intervals have to be short and therapy strategy has to be more aggressive in younger patients.