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03-25-2012, 07:27 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Iowa
Posts: 231
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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?
__________________
[B]Kristin
Aug 2010: diagnosed stage 3b, 4 mo. after birth of son. 29 yrs old and breastfeeding, ER/PR-, Her-2+ started Neoadjuvant therapy: 4x FEC, 10x abraxane & Herceptin
Feb 2011: L mx with recon. Path. showed only DCIS but 4/10+ nodes.
March 2011: 6 wks rads.
Mother passed, lower back pain.
Late May 2011: Bone mets but organs clear; Tykerb, Xeloda, Xgeva. Stopped Herceptin. Implant infected: removed implant.
October 2011: Bone progression; Gemzar and Carboplatin & restarted Herceptin.
Jan 2012: Progression, re-classified as ER+; Tykerb, Herceptin, Zoladex & Femara. Anti-E is working!
May 2012: ovaries out, markers stable but elevated. Cont. Herceptin, Tykerb, Xgeva & Femara.
Dec 2012: aromasin
Jan 2013: faslodex, herceptin, tykerb
Jun: Kadcyla
Aug: Rads to hip, then Perjeta, Herceptin & Taxotere
Nov 2013: Perjeta, Herceptin, Halaven
Early 2014: Affinitor, Aromasin, Perjeta, Herceptin.
June 2014: Estradiol, Perjeta, Herceptin
Aug 14: Tamoxofin, H & P
http://kristin-notdying-blog.blogspot.com/
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03-25-2012, 09:53 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: "Love never fails."
Posts: 5,808
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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...
__________________
Jackie07
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/06/doctors-letter-patient-newly-diagnosed-cancer.html
http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/MultiMedi...=114&trackID=2
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03-26-2012, 02:02 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 403
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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.
__________________
1/11 age 36 DX
ER/PR-, Her2 +
TCH*6, Herceptin
BMX with immediate recontruction 5/2011 Lattismus Flap- Dx stage 3c 10/23 nodes
9/11 Radiation
3/12 Local recurrence to skin stage IV
Whole body scan CLEAR
4/12 Tykerb & Xeolda Skin mets slowly regressing
8/12 PET & Brain CT Clear
5/13 Skin mets progressing
6/13 PET scan chestwall recurrence in contralateral anxillary,internal mammary and ipsilateral subpectoral nodes
6/13 kadcyla
10/13 whole body scan -clear NED. previously resolved skin rash gone but 3 new lesions. Biopsy confirmed for skin recurrence
11/13 to 02/14 tykerb & herceptin
02/14 add abraxane/gemzar, 2 weeks on 1 week off at reduced dose
05/14 whole body PET clear/ brain CT clear but skin mets are getting worse, ready for new chemo
05/14 navelbine perjeta herceptin
07/14 skin mets progressing red rash worse
08/14 wide local excision with diep flap to close wound. Final path shows 2 positive margins showing inflammatory carcinoma Going back to surgery in 2 weeks
09/01/14 resection- clear margins
3 weeks after 2nd surgery, a new nodular rash found near drain incision with 2 small red spots behind the chest wall biopsy on 10/1. Positive for breast cancer
Radiation 11/2014 with xeloda then weekly cisplatin
11/14 brain MRI clean
12/14 finished 33 radiations burnt and very painful. Bedridden for 1 week
12/14 t current Herceptin and perjeta only
02/15 rash on upper back right side skin mets radiation planned
02/15 staring electron radiation *35
Stopped at 30 due to severe skin burn, resumed 10 days later
05/15 red patches appeared in between previously radiated area, skin mets. Ct and brain Mri clear. Simulation planned, radiation to start after trip to Alaska.
05/24 new spot identified in scar line on previously radiated reconstructed breast- electron on both side chest wall area and scar line
07/15 multiple skin and lung recurrence begin halaven
11/15 cough much better but very tired on halaven and starting to see some new red skin blotches-suspicious
11/15 heading to China for immune therapy
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03-28-2012, 05:59 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Iowa
Posts: 231
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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
__________________
[B]Kristin
Aug 2010: diagnosed stage 3b, 4 mo. after birth of son. 29 yrs old and breastfeeding, ER/PR-, Her-2+ started Neoadjuvant therapy: 4x FEC, 10x abraxane & Herceptin
Feb 2011: L mx with recon. Path. showed only DCIS but 4/10+ nodes.
March 2011: 6 wks rads.
Mother passed, lower back pain.
Late May 2011: Bone mets but organs clear; Tykerb, Xeloda, Xgeva. Stopped Herceptin. Implant infected: removed implant.
October 2011: Bone progression; Gemzar and Carboplatin & restarted Herceptin.
Jan 2012: Progression, re-classified as ER+; Tykerb, Herceptin, Zoladex & Femara. Anti-E is working!
May 2012: ovaries out, markers stable but elevated. Cont. Herceptin, Tykerb, Xgeva & Femara.
Dec 2012: aromasin
Jan 2013: faslodex, herceptin, tykerb
Jun: Kadcyla
Aug: Rads to hip, then Perjeta, Herceptin & Taxotere
Nov 2013: Perjeta, Herceptin, Halaven
Early 2014: Affinitor, Aromasin, Perjeta, Herceptin.
June 2014: Estradiol, Perjeta, Herceptin
Aug 14: Tamoxofin, H & P
http://kristin-notdying-blog.blogspot.com/
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03-28-2012, 03:55 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 432
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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
__________________
Amanda xx
40 year old Mum to three gorgeous kids - son 5 and daughters 8 and 11
Wife to my wonderfully supportive husband of 17 years!
22 February 2011 - Diagnosed Early Breast Cancer IDBC Stage2b (ER/PR -ve, Her2+ve +++) - 38 years old
(L) skin sparing mastectomy with tissue expander, axilla clearance (2/14 affected) clear margins.
Fec*3, Taxotere and herceptin*2 - stopped due to secondary diagnosis
June 24 2011 Stage IV - Skin met, axilla node, multiple lung lesions
Bolero3 trial - Navelbine, Hereptin weekly, daily Everolimus/Placebo
February 2012 - July 2012 Tykerb and Xeloda - skin mets resolved, Lungs initially dramatically reduced but growing again
August 2012 (turn 40!) tykerb and herceptin (denied compassionate use of TDM1) while holidaying in Italy!
September 2012 - January 2013 TDM1 as part of the Th3resa trial - lymph nodes resolved, lungs slowly progressing.
January 2013 - herceptin, carboplatin and Perjeta (compassionate access)
April 2013 - Some progression in lungs and lymph nodes - Abraxane, Herceptin and Perjeta
July 2013 - mixed response - dramatic reduction of most lung disease, progression of smaller lung nodules and cervical and hilar nodes - ? Add avastin.
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