T2 signal enhanced

HI Slh

T2 signal enhancement was never mentioned at any of G's post scan appointments so I'm sorry I can' t fairly comment, All we were advised was that bright white spots/areas on the MRI were signs of a blood supply and that indicated active tumour material. We went over two years without actually seeing the images as most of the appointments were video calls.

Hopefully someone else in the group has some personal experience that they can share here or you could reach out via Ask the Expert.

sorry I can't be of more help on this one.

love n hugs

Wee Me xx

Hi there, sorry you've encountered the word 'increased' - not a word one wants to hear usually. 

From my understanding (others correct if I get it wrong!)... when you have an MRI you have multiple different types of scan. The most significant one for glioblastoma is the T1 contrast scan. (btw the T here is unrelated to T cells, which have relevance to immunotherapy.) If you have enhancement on the T1 contrast scan, then that may be tumour. This is what I assume you mean by the 'enhanced area on the MRI'.

You also have a T2/FLAIR scan. This picks up signal in the white matter of the brain (here I may not get technical terms correct!). If this signal is increased it can be infiltrative tumour (tiny tumour cells that don't get picked up by T1 contrast, and people sometimes refer to as the tumour tentacles) or fluid/edema swelling. The scan by itself can't tell which is which and it's probably a bit of both.

So if you have increased T2 signal round the enhanced area, that's saying you may have increased microscopic tumour spread and/or increased edema, but they won't be able to tell which just from this scan.

After radiotherapy there will almost always be increased T2, which may even be a good sign bc it's the brain responding to the treatment. My wife certainly had increased T2 early on, and there is a lot of T2 signal all around her temporal lobe, but it's been stable now for several months.

I hope that's helpful, and where I've got facts wrong, others please do correct!

Good luck. I hope your scan finding is nothing to be concerned about.

Correct I’ve always read the T2 enhancement as a signal the tumour could be about to start growing there now too 

Thank you, that's helpful  

Thank you x

Thank you Dek