Two days ago, my mother sat me down and told me my sister has a brain tumour in her left lobe. They said it was an isolated glioma, but it was rather large. Two days ago, she thought she’d be able to undergo surgery and go through a rough recovery, but she had hope of coming through it. The left frontal lobe, she explained, would probably cause her to lose some of her memories, the ability to remember short-term, and affect her personality. She had an appointment today with a neurosurgeon and he told her that he was not recommending surgery. He told her he would not be able to get the entire tumor out and it was a possibility that opening her up would cause the tumour to become vicious. He told her it will kill her, but offered no time line. They’re going to check on it in 3 months to check its’ progress in growth. If it is growing considerably, then they will have no choice but to operate and take out a portion of the brain, risking the rapid progression. If it’s progressing slowly, they will leave it. Does this sound wrong to anyone else? Does it seem like they should do radiation or chemotherapy or SOMETHING rather than just let the tumour slowly suffocate her brain to death? The CT scan specifically says “most in keeping with a low-grade glioma”. Does that not imply benign? I guess I just don’t know all the details. The tumour size on the CT is 4.2 cm x 2.1cm x 2.9 cm cortical and subcortical hyperintensity involving the medial aspect of the left frontal lobe anterosuperioraly. The lesion has positive mass effect and involves both cortex and subcortical white matter. The lesion is hypointense on T1-weighted sequences and shows no significant contrast enhancement. This is an isolated intracranial abnormality. That is word for word what is on the MRI. We are in Canada.