Welcome to my website!  My name is Carol Welsh and I'm a 9 1/2 year survivor of an adult ependymoma, a rare brain tumor.  I've had three brain surgeries, a placement of a shunt, a course of radiation and oral chemotherapy called Temodar which did not stop the growth of my tumor.  On March 22, 2005 I started a different "heavy duty" chemotherapy regimen, a combination of IV carboplatin and IV etoposide (VP-16).  I completed three more rounds of the chemo (April 12-14, May 7-9 and May 28-30) to buy some time while I investigated the possibility of a third surgery, which I eventually had on December 13, 2005.  With the recurrent tumor I had headaches, balance problems and severe double vision.  In fact, I had so many physical complaints that I was overwhelmed.  For over eleven months I took a daily dose of Decadron which has its pros and cons  - it is a vital steroid to control edema (swelling) around a brain tumor but it has horrible side effects.  Since my third surgery I have struggled to both accept and overcome my deficits. 

 

On December 19, 2008, I had sudden respiratory arrest.  Fortunately, I was in the ER already, because I had gained 20 pounds in about a month and had grown increasingly confused, exhausted and was hallucinating at night.  The CO2 level in my arterial blood was 75 and it's a miracle that I wasn't in a coma.  I was intubated, ventilated, and ultimately ended up with a tracheostomy.  It appears that damage to my respiratory center in my brain stem from the 3rd surgery and/or the radiation caused chronic complex sleep apnea and/or hypoventilation, which is shallow breathing at night.  My right heart failed because of pulmonary hyptertension caused by repeatedly low oxygen levels at night.  I was, and still am, hypercapneic which means I have high levels of CO2 in my blood.  Here's a good article which explains both obstructive and central sleep apnea: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/12/AR2009061203267.html.  I am presented with two nightly solutions- a mask with bilevel ventilation support or a trach with ventilation support.  I have several head and scalp issues related to my tumor, plus a not-so-subtle tendency toward claustrophobia, that make the mask option more complicated than it might seem initially.  A major wrinkle is my throat seems to be collapsed even in daytime and it will take extra-strong pressure to push past the tissue if I use the mask.  With the trach, you bypass this nerve-damaged tissue.  But at a price (having a hole in your neck).  Meanwhile, I can barely withstand all the physical problems I face every minute.  My breathing crisis is a prime example of the sinister nature of brain tumors - and the key factor of tumor location and resulting damage to the most sensitive area of the brain, the brain stem. 

 

I've created this site to help other patients and caregivers learn about adult ependymoma and to give my story as one example.  Besides the details about an ependymoma itself, I hope my website describes "the complete change in my lifestyle" -- a sentiment first articulated to me by a fellow ependymoma survivor, Kathy (Claremore, OK).

 

According to the American Brain Tumor Association and the National Brain Tumor Society, ependymomas are glial tumors which arise from ependymal cells which line the ventricles (spinal fluid spaces) of the brain and the center of the spinal cord. Ependymomas make up 3 - 6% of the estimated 52,236 primary brain tumors diagnosed in the United States in 2008.  Ependymomas occur at the peak ages of 5 and again at 34.  While they are rare in adults, ependymomas are the third most common brain tumor in children. Most occur in the posterior fossa (the lower back portion of the brain) and of these, nearly all occur in the fourth ventricle.  A 2002 eMedicine report states 5-year survival rates of 76% for adults and a dismal 14% for children.  According to the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery, about 10% of brain ependymomas will spread to the spinal cord through the cerebro-spinal fluid. 

 

Ependymomas are classified in four divisions:

 

     1.  ependymoma (the general term for the tumor)

     2.  anaplastic ependymoma (more aggressively growing cells)

     3.  myxopapillary ependymoma (occurs more often in the spinal cord)

     4.  subependymoma (grows slower than a typical ependymoma)

 

Ependymomas are graded using the World Health Organization (WHO) standard - grades I and II are considered benign and grades III and IV are considered malignant or "anaplastic."  However, benign ependymomas can be anything but benign.  "Low grade" is a more descriptive term than "benign."  As space-occupying lesions in an extremely limited space, often they are malignant by location, and sometimes they can recur, perhaps not as fast as might be the case with anaplastic ependymoma, but they can recur nonetheless.  Mine recurred the first time after three years.  The location of a brain ependymoma can be devastating.  Think real estate as in, "location, location, location."  Where the tumor is and the skill of the neurosurgeon in attempting to remove it are most important.  Some people are wrecked from the surgery to try to remove an ependymoma that might be attached to one or more cranial nerves on the brainstem.  The cranial nerves are twelve pairs of nerves that are the critical sources of a person's ability to breathe, smell, see, chew, taste, move and hear.  My surgeries resulted in several deficits because of the "insult" to some of these nerves.  Fortunately, I have regained these abilities at least partially.  Some patients, though, never regain some vital functions, such as their swallowing, breathing, walking or speaking ability. 

 

Is this brain cancer?  It's not a simple answer.  Ependymomas are tumors and they can recur either locally in the brain or into the spinal cord, so in that sense they are cancerous.  However, sometimes they are slow-growing and do not spread to other parts of the body and in that sense they do not behave like cancer.  Most importantly, and frighteningly, ependymomas, even if benign on the WHO scale, can be deadly simply by their location, either if they grow and cause death or if they are removed and cause death from the surgery.  Ependymomas are treated like many cancers with surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy.  New growth of a slow-growing tumor might not show for years.  The scary truth is that any form of ependymoma that is either inoperable surgically or unresponsive to radiation and/or drug therapies eventually will kill the patient, on a timeline that is specific to the individual case.