HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - "WE are confident vaccine prevents bc by preventing her2+ DCIS shows efficacy

Lani · 11-15-2006, 06:04 PM

I am not an oncologist, radiation therapist, oncology nurse, pharmacist or other with personal treatment experience but I can tell you from my reading:

1) when there are but a few of these there is a procedure by which orthopaedic surgeons inject bone cement into the vertebral body (the shape of a marshmallow normally) after an instrument has "jacked" up the height of the vertebra prior to injecting the cement. I suppose sometimes they don't jack it up much and just inject the cement in. It is called a vertebroplasty and keeps the bone from collapsing further IF this is the source of the pain rather than the nerves or spinal cord being impinged upon. Jacking up the vertebral body to its old height can relieve some symptoms of of impingement, but I don't know how many vertebral bodies can be involved before they decide it is too many to try to treat them all. It is a minimally invasive surgery, but a surgery and if you mom's condition is not that great that might influence whether they would consider it.
I will see if I can find any articles discussing how many might be too many

2) I am not a pharmacist but there are several papers on intravenous bisphosphonates for hypercalcemia from bone mets and that they seem to relieve bony pain from the mets as well sometimes.

I was trying to post some but this 2500 character rule botched it up.

Will have to return to do this later....

11-15-2006, 06:04 PM	#6
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,778	Ski bunny I am not an oncologist, radiation therapist, oncology nurse, pharmacist or other with personal treatment experience but I can tell you from my reading: 1) when there are but a few of these there is a procedure by which orthopaedic surgeons inject bone cement into the vertebral body (the shape of a marshmallow normally) after an instrument has "jacked" up the height of the vertebra prior to injecting the cement. I suppose sometimes they don't jack it up much and just inject the cement in. It is called a vertebroplasty and keeps the bone from collapsing further IF this is the source of the pain rather than the nerves or spinal cord being impinged upon. Jacking up the vertebral body to its old height can relieve some symptoms of of impingement, but I don't know how many vertebral bodies can be involved before they decide it is too many to try to treat them all. It is a minimally invasive surgery, but a surgery and if you mom's condition is not that great that might influence whether they would consider it. I will see if I can find any articles discussing how many might be too many 2) I am not a pharmacist but there are several papers on intravenous bisphosphonates for hypercalcemia from bone mets and that they seem to relieve bony pain from the mets as well sometimes. I was trying to post some but this 2500 character rule botched it up. Will have to return to do this later....