Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 9/11/2007

Question
HI,

My mom was diagonised with Grade2 astrocytoma (according to the biopsy) in May 2007.She is 64 yars old. Her tumor is inoperable, its in the left temporal lobe. After the diagnosis she had 32 rounds of Radiation therapy. Its almost a month now after her radiation treatment.She at present is suffering from short term memory loss and does'nt feel like eating anything.Other then this she is not suffering from anything major. She  goes for a walk everyday,interacts with people etc. The doc said they have stopped her steroids. She had just one seizure before the diagnosis and headache sometimes.I have a few questions,

1) Her confusion has increased a little bit.Is it because of the radiation or the tumor is upto something now?
2) Her is a grade 2 astrocytoma will it become aggressive soon?
3) Should we seek more opinions from the doctors to operate the tumor and remove it?
4) our doc told us to get an MRI(this will be her 1st MRI after radiaion) in the first week of Dec should we wait so long to get her MRI?

Please reply soon,
Thankyou,
Pallavi

Answer
If the grade 2 is correct it is probably a rather slowly growing tumor so she could have a few years or so of survival time, but it is impossible to say exactly how long or if or when her tumor will become more aggressive. Her cofusion may be caused by her tumor or by the swelling her radiation will cause or a combination effect of both.
It is never wrong to ask for a second opinion but probably the original evaluation here will be confirmed. Well her tumor grows slowly and it is good to get rid of as much swelling as possible so I do not find the MRI time unreasonable.