Incidental Effect of Long-Term Tacrolimus Treatment on Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma Volume Shrinkage and Clinical Improvement

Incidental Effect of Long-Term Tacrolimus Treatment on Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma Volume Shrinkage and Clinical Improvement: Objective:

We describe the effect of long-term tacrolimus delivery on sporadic vestibular schwannoma (VS).

Patient:

A 48-year-old woman who was diagnosed a right VS.

Intervention:

Long-term tacrolimus delivery following liver transplant.

Main Outcome Measures:

Clinical examination, audiometric test, and gadolinium-contrasted magnetic resonance imaging.

Results:

During the reported follow-up period, the patient felt hearing improvement especially in noisy environment. This was consistent with a clear audiometric improvement. Over a 26 months follow-up period, we noticed a 50% volume regression and a 40% decrease in the intensity of enhancement of the tumor after gadolinium injection.

Conclusion:

Tacrolimus, an immunosuppressant used to prevent rejection in organ transplant, could lead to VS volume shrinkage and hearing improvement. Tacrolimus could be an interesting new therapeutic weapon, especially for VS in Neurofibromatosis type 2.