Volume growth rate of acoustic neuromas on MRI post-stereotactic radiosurgery.

Of the approximately 160 acoustic neuroma patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery in the world up to 1987, 8 patients at UCLA Medical Center have had two or more magnetic resonance scans at least one year apart available for study (all 8 patients were treated with stereotactic radiosurgery for acoustic neuromas by the Department of Neurosurgery at the Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden). The followup time after radiosurgery ranged from 4 to 8 years. The volume doubling rate post-stereotactic radiosurgery was calculated to be slow (763 to 888 days) in two patients, virtually arrested in five patients (doubling times larger than 2500 days) and negative (-563 days) in one patient indicating a shrinking tumor. Due to the limited sample size no radiological finding or clinical data correlated with the volume doubling times. A control patient that had no treatment for her tumor had a doubling time of 217 days for comparison.