mets on liver+brain - bones, lungs?

[beatrice]

Hi, I am a BC stage IV with mets on liver and brain. I was treated with stereotaxis for brain and I am on herceptin+xeloda to treat liver.
I read this message board often, it help me a lot to understand things in a broader context. I know at this stage there is a strong risk for mets on bones and lungs; to this regard, what is your experience? Should I do a bone scan just to make sure (my last one was more than a year ago). Just wondering what are the best 'moves' before it's too late...
Thanks

[StephN]

Hello Beatrice -
Sounds like you are fighting this pretty well. I know what it is like to fear a spread to other organs. My mets were in liver big time and starting into bones. My treatment got it all and I am NED.
When I was treated for mets I had all parts scanned to see where the cancer was. After initial scans had an abdominal scan every 4 weeks then every 6 weeks when there were only a few tumors left and markers going down. When we thought the cancer was done, I had a PET scan to confirm. I did have a full body bone scan about 2-3 months after getting OFF chemo as I had pain in my ribs. There was no evidence of cancer.
I would think that a bone scan would be a good idea to rule out anything there. I also have a chest x-ray once a year besides the CT that also shows most of my lungs.
All the best wishes for a successful fight against any more spread and to knock out what is there now. Many patients have good success on the drugs you are taking.

[anonymous]

Beatrice

Since you are at high risk for developing bone mets, you should definitely be scanned and many oncs would recommend that you be on a class of drugs called bisphosphonates ( either aredia or zometa ) to lower your risk of developing bone mets. They are given once a month IV.

Good luck.