Hi, I am a BC stage IV with mets on liver and brain. I was treated with stereotaxis for brain and I am on herceptin+xeloda to treat liver.
I read this message board often, it help me a lot to understand things in a broader context. I know at this stage there is a strong risk for mets on bones and lungs; to this regard, what is your experience? Should I do a bone scan just to make sure (my last one was more than a year ago). Just wondering what are the best 'moves' before it's too late...
Thanks

Hello Beatrice -
Sounds like you are fighting this pretty well. I know what it is like to fear a spread to other organs. My mets were in liver big time and starting into bones. My treatment got it all and I am NED.
When I was treated for mets I had all parts scanned to see where the cancer was. After initial scans had an abdominal scan every 4 weeks then every 6 weeks when there were only a few tumors left and markers going down. When we thought the cancer was done, I had a PET scan to confirm. I did have a full body bone scan about 2-3 months after getting OFF chemo as I had pain in my ribs. There was no evidence of cancer.
I would think that a bone scan would be a good idea to rule out anything there. I also have a chest x-ray once a year besides the CT that also shows most of my lungs.
All the best wishes for a successful fight against any more spread and to knock out what is there now. Many patients have good success on the drugs you are taking.

Beatrice

Since you are at high risk for developing bone mets, you should definitely be scanned and many oncs would recommend that you be on a class of drugs called bisphosphonates ( either aredia or zometa ) to lower your risk of developing bone mets. They are given once a month IV.

Good luck.