Gender and age features of post-radiation pseudoprogression in vestibular schwannomas

Over the past three decades, stereotactic radiosurgery has firmly taken its place in the arsenal of treatments for vestibular schwannomas. An important feature of radiosurgical treatment is the possible development of a transient postradiational tumor growth - pseudoprogression, the magnitude and duration of which can influence the further clinical course. The aim of this work was to study the influence of patient gender and age on the development of postradiation enlargement. The median follow-up of pseudoprogression was found to be 36.6 months, with a typical short course of pseudoprogression (2 years) in 18.3% of cases. Pseudoprogression occurred in women in 60.24% and in men in 39.22% of cases (P=0.0165). Age had no effect on the frequency of pseudoprogression (P=0.6134), but there was a tendency for it to occur less frequently in elderly and senile patients compared to younger patients.