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Veterans Acoustic
Neuroma Network

Treatment decision workbook

Compare the choices.
Keep your priorities visible.

Use this workbook with qualified clinicians to organize facts, questions, tradeoffs, and next steps. It does not score options or choose a treatment for you.

Begin the workbook

Start with confirmed information

Your clinical snapshot

Copy facts from your reports or ask a clinician to help complete them. Leave anything uncertain blank.

What matters to you

Name your priorities before comparing treatments

Mark the issues you want every clinician to address. Priorities can conflict; the purpose is to make those tradeoffs visible.

Three management categories

Compare only options suitable for your case

Observation, focused radiation, and microsurgery have different goals and follow-up needs. Tumor size and location, symptoms, hearing, growth, age, general health, and specialist experience can influence what is appropriate.

OBSERVATION

Monitor over time

Main approach: Follow the tumor and hearing without immediate tumor-directed treatment.

Clarify: MRI and hearing-test schedule, what counts as meaningful growth, symptom triggers, and when treatment would be reconsidered.

RADIATION

Control growth

Main approach: Deliver focused radiation in one or more sessions with the goal of limiting future growth.

Clarify: Technique, dose and number of sessions, expected control, nerve risks, imaging changes, long-term follow-up, and options if growth continues.

MICROSURGERY

Remove tumor tissue

Main approach: Remove all or part of the tumor through an operation.

Clarify: Surgical approach, removal goal, hearing and facial-nerve expectations, hospital and recovery course, rehabilitation, and management of any remaining tumor.

Questions to ask about every suitable option

Second opinions

Compare recommendations using the same questions

Different teams may reasonably emphasize different options. Record the reasoning, expected outcomes, and follow-up—not only the recommendation.

Consultation one

Consultation two

Before deciding

Close the remaining information gaps

Sources and limits

This workbook supports a conversation; it does not compare your clinical eligibility, calculate personalized risks, or recommend treatment. Current evidence has important limitations, and outcomes vary by the individual, tumor, technique, and treating center.

Sources reviewed September 18, 2026. Independent clinical review of this site is pending.