her2+ with mets to lumbar

[Regina]

I am just looking for someone who has mets to the bone. I am being given radiation to the spot, which I am told is only a small area of "suspicious activity" on one lumbar vertebrae. All my other scans are clear, lungs, liver etc. all are good. I am a little nervous but my doctors have told me that the radiation will "zap the cancer". I am keeping positive. This is a recurrence of stage IIB her2+, er pr+ from 4 years ago following lumpectomy, A,C,T and rads with 2 positive sentinal nodes but no further mets at the time. It sounds like my doctors are being positive that I will get through this again, which helps me a lot. But, it is still frightening. I would like someone who has been through this to respond. I will be getting herceptin and will also be having my ovaries removed to stop the production of estrogen. I will be put on raloxifene.
Thank you for responses in advance. Prayers and good wishes to all.

[Elena]

How did you find out about your mets? Did your blood values change? My doc does not follow markers.

[Jackie]

Hi Regina,
I have mets to spine and rib area. My onc never mentioned radiation to treat the mets...I went onto hormonal therapy that wasn't effective, then began herceptin/navelbine. I see my onc next wk and will ask under what conditions they choose to use radiation. Perhaps because yours is isolated to one spot and mine was not. Initial chemo put me into menopause and I took femara until mets dx. Good luck to you!
Jackie

[Regina]

I had a recurrence to the breast and they did a bone scan. The bone scan showed a hot spot so I had an MRI which showed the suspicious activity. All of my doctors have said the radiation will get it. I have talked to others who have had this and they say the radiation zapped it as well. My doctor did say that it doesn't show an actual tumor just suspicious so they are just assuming and playing it safe.

[Debby]

I have mets to lower spine, ribs, hip bones and liver. Mine were discovered by tumor markers. They started rising so we did scans which then showed the mets. I tried hormones, didn't work so have been on Herceptin/Navelbine combo for 5 months so far. Markers are steadily but slowly decreasing. I was under the impression that rads to bone mets was for pain control. I could be wrong though. I have only had minimal pain so haven't done rads yet.

[cindyhogue]

Regina: I was recently diagnosed with a bone met to my hip. I got 10 radiation treatments. Prior to the bone met being found, I added Taxatere and Carboplatin to my on-going Herceptin due to consistently rising tumor markers this fall. I have a history of mets to liver and brain. My bone met was small, but in a place likley to fracture if things progressed. Cindy