Actor Scott Baio ill wife

Scott Baio Twitter ^ | June15, 2015

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Blessed Fr Solanus Casey, pray for her. I will pray the Glorious.

[Liberty Valance]

Prayers up.

[Rockingham]

Having had a brain tumor removed, successfully, I know from personal experience that family, prayer, and the best available neurosurgeon and hospital are the way to go. I was fortunate to have had all of those — and luck — in my favor — as well as surgical techniques that matured only in the last ten years or so.

[Yaelle]

Agree with you. Have had mine “removed” but it grew back and now “debulked.” Good surgeon and prayers. Wishing you continued health.

Prayers for Mrs. Baio.

[Rockingham]

I too had a second round of surgery that sought to remove residual bits of pituitary tumor left after the first operation. Yet even after that, enough remains and is untouchable surgically that I have to get MRIs every year or so to monitor against possible regrowth. If that happens, I may need to get radiation treatments.

Part of the alarm for Mrs. Baio is uncertainty over just what type of tumor she has. Plausibly, at the worst, it may be a malignant tumor seeded by her prior bout of breast cancer instead of the usual benign type found on the meninges.

We can all take hope though in the advance of new therapies that can destroy even brain tumors by mobilizing the immune system against them. Based on modified viruses, early safety trials have been so successful that they are being fast-tracked into later stage, large scale clinical trials.

[wastoute]

Congratulations!

[Patriot Babe]

Wow I’m happy to hear you battled it and recover. I wish the same for Rene.

[Yaelle]

I hope and pray hers is benign. Mine is, but it still causes problems. And since its wound around the carotid it’s here to stay and can only be debulked. However, I’m not rushing to have that surgery again.

[Rockingham]

We have the same problem then, assuming that you also had a pituitary tumor. As my surgeon explained and showed on my MRI, residual bits of tumor are attached to the carotid artery and have toughened due to the first surgery and cannot be removed without risking life-threatening damage to the artery.

The medical literature shows that such residual bits of benign pituitary tumor may disappear, remain stable indefinitely, or start growing again. Taking a daily dose of vitamin D3 may help because it has anti-tumor effects. I wish you the best.

[Rockingham]

Thank you.

[Yaelle]

Yes indeed. I was told by my surgeon that the meds taken for these conditions also will toughen the tumor. I wasn’t on meds. But the tumor had grown so very large and all around the carotid. Wish you the best too. I do take D3 every day unless I get a ton of sun.

[Rockingham]

Pituitary tumors can be secreting or non-secreting, referring to whether they secrete one or more pituitary hormones and create an excess. Often, it is the symptoms of and detection excess hormones through a blood test that leads to the diagnosis of the tumor.

Prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas (also called prolactinomas) are the most common type, being about thirty per cent of all pituitary tumors. These and other secreting pituitary tumors will often respond to medication and shrink, but they may also toughen up and become harder to remove surgically.

As it happens then, in many cases, a surgeon is called in only after a course of medication by an endocrinologist has run its course and toughened the tumor. Your surgeon's comments may have been intended as a general explanation and not directed at your situation specifically.

Like yours, my tumor was of the non-secreting type and had gotten relatively large -- the size of a small walnut -- before massive headaches, sinus bleeding, and vision loss led to its diagnosis after an MRI. Like yours, my tumor had also grown tendrils that attached to the carotid artery and that still remain after surgery.

Perhaps the rapid advance of immunotherapy will provide a way to treat such tumor residues. In the meantime, I will get MRIs every few years, just in case.