Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 2/14/2009

Question
my friend was diagnosed this week as having a small aneurysm and a tumor
on the left side of her brain,up until Tuesday she didn't appear to have any
symptoms other than occasional headaches. She has had a CT scan,MRI scan
and angiogram,they have tried interventional techniques during the angio to
deal with the aneurysm unsuccessfully.

She says that she has to decide between radiotherapy to reduce the tumor
size(but this could cause the aneurysm to bleed during or after treatment)
and surgery(which carries a high risk of blindness or paralysis)

At the moment she is understandably very despondent and is talking about
refusing all treatments,going home and simply taking whatever time she has
left. I know that you cannot tell me or her what to do and that this hasnt been
the most detailed description of her case but any advice you could give would
be greatly appreciated.

The only thing i can do is put myself in that extremely difficult place and try
and think what i would do if it were me,after some thought  i think my choice
would be to go for the surgery.

Answer
If you can supply me with her FULL CT & MRI & angiography reports - you can copy them here - I can probably tell you what I would do myself (I'm right now under combined hormone & radiation therapy for prostate cancer) but without that information it is impossible for me to give you an honest answer! The information provided so far is just too scarce!