Sunday, October 7, 2007
largest man in the world; a mystery
Watching a special on TLC about the largest man in the world with a pituitary brain tumor that is very strange. He was diagnosed when he was 12 because of headaches. His brain had swelled to dangerous levels so they implanted a tube in his brain to drain off the fluid caused by the growth of the brain tumor. He has had no treatment since then but has kept growing. In fear for his life an endocrinologist who heard of his case went to visit the man and found that he had no abnormal levels of GH or IGF-1. They did an MRI and found that the tumor had died on it's own for reasons they cannot explain. So the big mystery is WHY DID THE TUMOR DIE? HOW? How did relieving the pressure on the brain kill the tumor? What is the link? Anyone care to speculate?
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3 comments:
Well, FYI, my tumor was undergoing "necrosis" when they looked at it, which means it was "dead" (in the middle at least). I think it was squeezing itself to death because though it was expanding on my skull, it got to a point where it couldn't expand as much as it wanted to and it "suffocated."
I think?
Just seen a documentary about tall people which features this chap. No idea as to why the tumor behaved in this way. I'd love to meet some tall acromegalics though to make me feel normal.
Jason
Hi there,
I'm Chantal, an acromegalic young woman from the Netherlands.
I stumbled upon your weblogs and I do have one myself, but it's mostly in Dutch...
www.chantalshersenpan.web-log.nl
It's good to know we're not alone out there!
I have been operated in feb. 2006 to have my 2,5 x 2,5 cm. adenoma removed.
Octreotide and Lanreotide weren´t working, only gave me severe diabetes.
Radiation (GammaKnife) wasn´t possible because the leftover tumor bits were not visible enough. Now my IGF1 is gradually going down, without any medication.
Good luck and blessings to you all!
Kind regards,
Chantal
The Netherlands
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