After living with bone mets, are skin mets anything to sweat?
 

So I've had bone mets for almost a year now and have learned to deal with that emotional roller coaster. But now I've noticed a little pimple like bump near my mastectomy scar and I'm thinking it might be a skin met.

Before I tell my husband and family what I suspect it is- I want to know how serious or not so serious a skin met is after confirmed metastatic disease. Do you all think my doctor will change my treatment? It is a single little bump- nothing major, but its been there for a month or two. I did just start anti-hormonal therapies and have seen my tumor markers decreasing some.

Does an additional skin met (with the bone mets) put me in a higher risk category? Can I still hope to become NED and see my son grow up? From what I've read- its a local recurrence, right? So that's not as serious as a met in a vital organ, right?

Re: After living with bone mets, are skin mets anything to sweat?
 

Kristin,

It's hard not to worry about the possibility of new mets when we find anything 'abnormal'.

From the latest update of 'Calling all stage IV Sisters' thread, I could see 4, 5 members with skin met. One of them, MaryL has been NED since 2007.

You have been through so much in the past 20 months. I hope the pimple-like bump turns out to be just a pimple. I know it's hard to stay calm. But since your tumor marker has decreased some, the treatment you are currently on appears to be effective.

Always call your doctor first...

Re: After living with bone mets, are skin mets anything to sweat?
 

Hi Kristin,

Sorry to hear about your worries but glad that you are watching out for yourself. I was just diagnosed with a recurrence. It started on my key hole scar, the bottom. There has always been a red blotch there, sometimes red and sometimes not so noticable while i was on herceptin. I never had a second thought about it. Until one month prior to my scheduled implant exchange surgery, the blotch got redder and my oncologist thought it was chronic inflammation. I watched it for 3 weeks and it got worse. Bigger and redder, from pea size to a dime size.There was also a small nodule close to the blotch. The red blotch became a little bit bumpy. So 3 days prior to my surgery, i rushed to my oncologist office and showed him the nodule. It is not what a typical met looks like but he is unclear of what it is so i was at my surgeons office the same afternoon. He ordered an ultrasound which showed only thickened skin. ANyway he persisted in doing a biopsy and last friday was when i was dx with a recurrence. No treatment plan for me yet as we are still waiting for the full body scan and path report on the receptor status.

Sorry for the lengthy story. I guess what i am trying to say is that you need to have your doctor look at it if you are uncomfortable. It only takes a biopsy. If you still have expanders/implants in, they usually don't do a punch biopsy because of risk of infection. Some people have used Xeloda and tykerb to clear the skin mets. Some had surgeries to remove it.

I hope your bump is B9. It is nice to have one less thing about cancer to worry about. Oh, i read in an older post here that since Skin met is not in your blood they don't show up in the tumor marker test. So really a biopsy is the only way to tell.

Re: After living with bone mets, are skin mets anything to sweat?
 

Thanks ladies for your responses. Met with doctor yesterday, the red spot is not a skin met, but probably a side effect of the tykerb.

Jackie, you always have such good advice and info. Doctor did say that even at this point if it was a skin met, we wouldn't change the course of treatment- in his eyes, a skin met wouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks for the info Yanyan on the skin mets and tumor markers- I had no idea. I hope you can rest assured that your recurrence is local and you can still be optimistic for a cure. God bless you both,
Kristin

Re: After living with bone mets, are skin mets anything to sweat?
 

That's good new Kristin. We use my skin met as a marker of what may be going on elsewhere. As my onc has said - a skin met is not life threatening. My skin has some crazy stuff going on since I apstarted Tykerb but upside is skin meet is all but gone! Hoping it is similar in my lungs - scan in three weeks.
Glad things look good for you,
Amanda x