Can surgery make my brain TUMOR more aggressive?

[Fred9]

Hi, I had an MRI scan done a couple of years ago which revealed a lesion in my left temporal lobe. Either a silent Benign tumor or low grade. Have had conflicting messages from 2 different surgeons as to what to do. One is a very eminent British surgeon who practically waved me away and even told me not to bother with having yearly scans. The other surgeon was scrubbed up and ready to lay me out on the operating table.

The question I have and which I keep forgetting to ask during consultation is: Let's assume that this tumor is benign and non-life threatening. Can the very act of performing surgery on it have the effect of tripping some mechanism which will either turn the tumor more aggressive or otherwise make it more likely to grow back bigger than before?

[rumpled]

There is a doctor forum on here -
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Neurology/show/135
perhaps that is a better question there.
I have not heard that to be true, and could not find it in my research.
Do you know what type of tumor you have - was it biopsied?

[Fred9]

Thanks for the link. will post it there.
No, I haven't had a biopsy. Which is why I'm surprised that an experienced surgeon would make such an emphatic statement based on some scan slides. Ok, It's a relatively small mass, round, well defined, and non-enhancing and that's all he's got to go on. He said it was non cancerous and he didn't even think that it should be causing me symptoms (which is not true but long story)

[rumpled]

Ah yes - funny how those lesions never ever cause symptoms, but a large percentage of people with the lesions have then and when the lesion is gone, the symptoms recede... funny about that...

[Fred9]

Yes it's very frustrating. Although the first surgeon did think the symptoms were attributable to the lesion. The second (more eminent) surgeon wasn't so convinced and intimated that I should see a shrink. To me that's like going to see a proctologist when you have toothache!