Anyone with mets to chest wall

[Adriana Mangus]

Hi,


What's the process when someone is dx with mets to the chest wall?.

My doctor's back-up called me two days ago and said that the Pet-Scan showed "suspicious" areas in the chest wall. The doc then did not allow me to ask much, --since he's only providing me with the results, and my doc will be back at the end of the month.

I'm not in pain, haven't been coughing much either, not swollen nor lumps in the chest area so far.

I'm just wondering if anyone else in the group has dealt with this.

What treatment did you do?
Is it possible to do a needle biopsy?
Symptoms?

Anyone? please respond.

Thank you

Adriana

[dawn]

Adriana,

I ve had mets to the chest wall since Jan 2009. They havent' changed since they showed on the scan. I went on aromasin for a year and aredia infusions every 6 weeks. In Dec 2009 mets showed in my liver and am now on xeloda, aredia and herceptin. My last scan in june showed no change again in the chest wall and the liver has gone from 6 lesions to 5 and the 5th one which was the biggest has changed from 20mm to 5mm. My chest wall lesion could be healing as it hasn't changed for over a year. But until my liver mets I was doing fantastic on just aromasin.

Hope its the same for you.

Dawn

[Ceesun]

Adriana, So very sorry to hear this news--any update on the lung issue? Sorry I don't have any answers, here, but Happy Belated July 16th b-day, same as me! Ceesun

[Chelee]

Adriana, When I recurred back in Sept. 09 I was told matter of fact I recurred in rt femur, axilla and chest wall. After seeing my onc about this recurrence...I asked her how do they normally trt the chest wall...radiation? She said yes. (I can't have radiation to my chest due to lung issues.)

I was very concerned. I got a copy of my PET/CT as I always do and read it myself. Well...it mentioned chest wall but it said something that's off the midline to the right in chest wall. It turned out to be my seroma that has been there forever! I'm not sure why the rads tech wrote it up the way he did...but as they say...an x-ray, scan, etc is only as good as the guy that reads it. I've also had "suspicious" on reports and it turned out to be nothing. My liver was suspicious once on the PET portion...but CT did not collaborate this. Turn out to be nothing.

As far as doing a biopsy it mainly depends on the location in chest wall as I understand it? It could be a needle, wire or sometimes a surgical biopsy. Someone pls correct me if I'm wrong? I know one women at my cancer center that was dx with mets to chest wall 4 yrs ago...they have remained stable and she is only on Herceptin/Femara. I hope everything turns out ok for you.

Chelee

[Faith in Him]

Adriana,

I just got dx with this. My onc said I needed a biopsy. I not sure how to treat it since I already have had so much radiation. Maybe we can share info.

Thanks, Tonya

[Joan M]

Adriana,

Sorry to hear about this development. You're in my prayers.

Joan