Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Hi everyone,


I am hoping that someone can give me a little primer on bone mets.

I had a CT yesterday and picked up preliminary results which indicate localized sclerotic changes involving T10, T11, T12, L2, L3, L4 & L5 as well as right ilium and right femoral head. Previously (Dec 5), 10mm and 12mm sclerotic lesions were seen at T10 & T11 only on CT but I knew about L2 & L4 from PET. This report only gives a measurement for L4 (14mm) but not for any of the other lesions it just says "smaller" it also concludes with, "other vertebral bodies also have tiny sclerotic metastases" but doesn't indicate which others, they may be.
I know I will get a final and conclusive report as well as an explanation from my MO at my appt on Thursday but I was just hoping to determine the significance of these remarks so I can go in prepared and armed with questions. Does sclerotic indicate healing?

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

It sounds like at the minimum sclerotic means slow growing.i found this link that explains more:

http://rad.washington.edu/about-us/a...sions-of-bone/

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Tracy,

I wish that I could help you with your question but I'm afraid I cant. Hopefully you'll get a full explanation from your MO on Thursday. I'm praying for you girl and hoping that the news you get indicates that your body is responding to treatment.

Sending hugs your way.

Brenda

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Thanks, Brenda. I just got a call from my oncologist's office to remind me of my appointment tomorrow morning. Never, in my three year history with them, have they called to remind me of an appointment. I have chemo after my appointment, just as always. Of course I will be there. They are making me very nervous about the results of Monday's scans. Agness, I appreciate the link. :)

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Praying for you, Tracy!

Carol Ann

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Tracy,

I'm sure your appointment cant come soon enough. The waiting and worry is so difficult. Please keep us posted. I wish only good things for you.

Take Care,
Brenda

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Wrote a long explanation--website "ate it" & did not spit it back out!!

Too tired to repeat dissertation so will add link http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid...003087-pdf.pdf

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Thanks for the link, Lani and everyone for the encouragement. Sad to say that I am no more enlightened than before. I didn't get as great an explaination of what's happening as what I had hoped but he's my Oncologist, not a college professor. I wanted a biochemical description of the disease/repair process and why it looks like it does.
Copied and pasted from my facebook page.
Medical update:
The news is kind of mixed but overall quite good. Good news is that there is still no visceral involvement, very good news indeed! The so-so news is that CT keeps picking up new skeletal lesions but they are not confirmed as active, i.e. they don't pick up dye on the bone scan and last time didn't show activity on PET. The beast is slumbering but is not dead nor gone. It's the best I can hope for and really is good news too but troublesome for me to wrap my brain around that change is still occurring but not confirmed as actual progression. I really want to hear NED, no evidence of disease or even remission or stability but those are not words uttered or written, yet.
That said, I am going off chemo for a while. It's not doing anything miraculous and it's making me feel really sick so why take it? By going off it, we can evaluate if it is having any impact on slowing down progression. I'm going to continue to get targeted therapies, via infusion, every three weeks, Herceptin & Perjeta. I am also going to start taking daily Arimidex, we don't know that it will be useful given my weird, ER negative, PR+ (50%) pathology but it's worth trying. If I don't like the side effects, I will discontinue it but I will give it at least 12 weeks to see if it is beneficial.
So continues life of a stage IV patient, metster, lifer, whatever you want to call it. Taking life in 12 week increments and re-evaluating. I hope I have lots of time to get used to it.

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Tracy,

I'm glad that you got some good news. It seems reasonable to go off of chemo and see how you do. Chemo is so rough and if there isn't proof that it is helping, why put your body through it? I'm hoping that the H & P combo does the trick for you. They are so much easier to tolerate.

I hope you start feeling better and hear those lovely "NED" words uttered soon.

Take Care,

Brenda

Re: Significance of Sclerotic Mets?
 

Boy, Traci, it sure sounds like a mixed bag of question marks to me! Funny how we cancer patients are left to try to figure so much of this out for ourselves. I will be interested in knowing whether the chemo is benefiting you or not. Be nice if you could stay off the sauce, wouldn't it? Chemo is such an exhausting business. Praying you get good answers soon!