Brain tumors require patience, watchfulness instead of panic
Watching my little brain tumor grow slowly over the past 10 years has been an extraordinary exercise in courage, patience, gratitude and faith.
I learned about my tumor by accident in 2003 around my 50th birthday, when I’d had an MRI scan after collapsing from drinking too much water during a marathon.
Fortunately, my tumor is a benign and generally slowgrowing type called an acoustic neuroma. Located inside my skull on the nerve responsible for hearing and balance, it measured just three millimeters — about the size of a sesame seed — when discovered. Although I had no symptoms, an expert I consulted recommended two possible treatments: surgery to remove it or radiation to stop its growth. While this tumor wouldn’t metastasize, its growth could impair my facial nerves, balance and hearing, or even threaten crucial brain function. She advised acting early, when the tumor was small. Instead, I decided on a course of action known as “watch and wait.”
Also called “expectant management,” “active surveillance” and “watchful waiting,” this involves closely monitoring an ailment but withholding treatment unless symptoms appear or progress. Often used with slow-growing or precancerous lesions and with conditions where treatment risks may outweigh benefits, this strategy does not mean doing nothing. It involves regular checkups — which could mean blood tests, biopsies or imaging scans, all involving some physical, emotional and financial stress. And it requires a tolerance for uncertainty, the willingness to live with something that could be a ticking time bomb or a harmless growth.
Over a decade of watchful waiting, I’ve had 10 MRIs. Each of these scans was followed by a hearing test and a meeting with my doctor. I’m grateful to have health insurance, which means I paid $160 in coinsurance for the $3,579 MRI that I received recently and $50 for a $960 hearing test/doctor's appointment. The emotional cost is harder to calculate.
When first diagnosed, I immediately went on the Internet and learned that most acoustic neuromas are slowgrowing — but others expand rapidly. Anytime I felt dizzy or had trouble hearing, I worried. I joined a support group and met a woman whose surgery to remove an asymptomatic two-millimeter tumor had left her with crippling headaches and facial pain. I logged on to the discussion forum on the Acoustic Neuroma Association’s website and read horror stories of botched treatments as well as wonderful examples of excellent results. After several months of almost daily trips to the forum, I became overwhelmed by the anxiety these posts aroused and signed off.
Navigating an emotional tightrope between responsible vigilance and anxious obsession, I gratefully clung to the fact that I had no symptoms. My hearing and balance seemed unaffected. My yoga practice proved extremely helpful, since a central teaching is finding equilibrium — that steady place between effort and surrender — which is the key to watchful waiting. I found comfort in viewing the experience as an opportunity to cultivate gratitude and faith, and I meditated daily on visualizing the dissolving of my tumor.
By 2006, about three years after it was discovered, my tumor had grown to six millimeters — about the size of a pea. At my doctor’s urging, I met with a radiation oncologist, who recommended that I undergo radiation treatment intended to halt the growth.
But since I was still asymptomatic and the tumor was still small, I chose to continue watchful waiting. I’d read that some tumors stop growing on their own, and I hoped this would be the case with mine.
In April 2013, based on an article I had written about the accidental discovery of my tumor, I was asked to testify before the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues at a meeting devoted to the ethical implications of incidental findings. Representing the patient’s perspective, I told the panel: “As a health journalist I’d always thought there was great benefit in early detection. However my experience has made me question the wisdom of learning about an abnormality if all it offers is anxiety — as well as potential harm from treatments for something that might never affect my health.”
Ironically, four months after my testimony, I had my scheduled MRI and hearing tests and learned that my tumor now measured 1.2 centimeters — about the size of a small walnut.
While I still had no symptoms, tests of my vestibular function — the sensory system that contributes to balance — on the affected side were abnormal even though I had not experienced balance problems. Continued growth would now mean a strong likelihood of negative effects on my hearing and facial nerves. A common way people learn of an acoustic neuroma is experiencing sudden, one-sided hearing loss, which may be permanent. So perhaps my incidental finding had been a blessing after all. It was time to take action.
I spent six weeks visiting brain surgeons and radiation oncologists, spoke with patients who had chosen each approach, then made a decision to have what is known as gamma knife radiosurgery.
In my decade of waiting, there had been significant advances in this minimally invasive treatment option, which uses imaging to direct gamma radiation very precisely to a target point. The radiation is designed to inactivate further growth of the tumor. In the large majority of cases it is successful, but sometimes the tumor continues to grow and further treatment is necessary. And there are scary reports of rare instances in which benign tumors turned malignant through radiation. Yet weighted against the potential risks of brain surgery — including likely hearing loss in one ear — the gamma knife seemed right for me.
In February 2014, I had the morning-long outpatient procedure, which involved being given a mild sedative and having a head frame attached to my skull, then lying very still, similar to what you do while having an MRI. I left the hospital in the afternoon with gauze wrapped around my head, feeling just a little unsteady, and rested the next few days. By the following week I felt fine, and I was back to teaching yoga.
MRI and hearing tests done six months and then one year later showed that my hearing and the tumor were stable. Thankfully, I have felt no ill effects from the procedure, although I have been told that effects of radiation may emerge years later. It could take at least two years after the radiosurgery to learn whether my tumor has stopped growing. After that, further scans are recommended at two, four and eight years. So I will be watching and waiting for some time. And I am not alone. The boom in life expectancy — from about 47 years in 1900 to about 78 in 2012 — has resulted in an unprecedented “silver tsunami” of older adults, and technological advances mean an increased likelihood of finding some abnormality during those extra decades of life. While humans have always been aware of our mortality, we have never been able to so clearly see the approaching train that may take us out.