Long-term growth patterns of vestibular schwannomas after stereotactic radiotherapy: delayed re-growth

To determine the long-term outcomes of patients with vestibular schwannomas (VS) after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) who experience delayed tumour regrowth.

We carried out a retrospective case series in tertiary university settings. We included patients with VS with initial response to SRS and delayed regrowth, assessing a database of 735 patients with VS and 159 patients who had SRS as sole treatment. Following SRS, all patients had clinical follow-up and serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We documented the post-SRS clinical assessment, pre- and post-SRS VS size as per MRI in predetermined time periods, response to treatment and rate of (re-) growth and the final outcome in each case.

We identified six patients with good initial response but delayed VS regrowth at a faster rate than pre-SRS. The mean growth rate for these VS was 0.347 mm/month (range 0.04-0.78 mm/month) prior to treatment; the mean growth rate at the time of delayed re-growth was 0.48 mm/month (range 0.17-0.75 mm/month); this did not reach the level of statistical significance (p = 0.08). This regrowth occurred at a mean time of 42 months (range 36-66 months) post-SRS and stopped 22 months (mean, range 12-36 months) post regrowth detection in all cases.

Given that delayed post-SRS VS regrowth can occur in approximately 4% of the treated cases, it is important to continue close clinical and radiological follow-up. Despite this abnormal behaviour, VS do stop growing again; still, patients should be made aware of the possibility of this uncommon VS behaviour following SRS.