Hello Richard,
In UK, Canada and Australia (at least) radiation therapy is used for bone mets.
It's my understanding that they can target one specific area.
If she later develops widespread bone mets, there's "whole body radiation",
which if I recall, does either the half lower of the body or the top half.

If you're in the US, ask Alex ("Guess Who") to explain which States & Medicare
don't cover it.
I'm a little confused about it. I'm Canadian and just assumed that it was
covered in the US.
I think she said it's usually not covered when in Hospice or Nursing Homes (in
the US).

Radiation therapy could be her "friend" and keep her mobile and no /less pain
for quite some time.
It's all about rules (hospice, insurance, medicaid, medicare - payment) and
timing.

Of course, there's also other ways to medicate pain, but as you said, cancer in
the bones can be very painful.
Best,
J

Hi Richard,
I'm sorry to hear about your wife. My prayers go out to both of you. I
am a 49 year old woman..and I have Stage 4 Breast cancer, & I've been
dealing with bone "mets" since I've been diagnosed in '2000'. I have
them in my hips, my spine, neck, liver. They can be very painful. I am
treated with Zometa, which strengthens your bones, so that the tumors
don't eat through them...currently on weekly Taxotere treatments &  I
have been taking Oxycontin for the pain, it somewhat helps. I can't
give you a statistic on survival rate..My onc. gave me about 5
years..I'm proving him wrong, ha! I'm very warey about
radiation...because there are so many tumors clustered on the femur
head, I'm afraid something else will be affected while radiating that
area.  I'm kind of paraniod, because I don't need any other problems.
I apologize if I seem biased to radiation..but this is my experience.
God Bless, and stay strong,
Sunny

hi richard-
i'm 38 yrs old and was diagnosed with stage 4 last october.  i have dozens
of bone mets (and some in my lungs, liver and kidney).  in my opinion, if
your wife is strong and still healthy (as much as she can be), then she will
probably fare well.  i'm doing pretty well myself.  this is her first bone
met, and it can possibly be treated with radiation if neccesary.
my question would be what kind of treatment is she receiving presently?  is
she still on treatment?  if not, resuming treatment may shrink that new
tumor and help prevent new ones from forming.
i too am on zometa which has helped to heal many of my bone tumors.  yes, it
can be painful.  i take oxycodone and/or darvocet for the pain and i also
have nasea problems on occasion from those pain meds.  there are drugs to
help control nausea if she needs them.  unfortunately, the opiate family of
pain meds are probably the most effective form of prescription pain control.
but don't rule out the possiblity of accupuncture and other non- drug forms
of pain control.

my best advice to you would be to try not to look at the end yet.  it could
be very far off still.  it would seem a waste of time now to focus on what
may happen in the future.  just try your best to help her manage her current
situation and enjoy what you do have now.  later will take care of itself.
she still has time - and good time at that.  even very advanced breast
cancer can be treated as a chronic disease for years.  you never know what's
coming down the pipeline in a year or two - there are many very promising
breakthroughs, and only more to come.  you never know - we might get lucky.
till then, hang in there and try to enjoy life as much as you can.
good luck.
-christina

Richard

I supported my wife through her terminal cancer which mainly involved
bone mets.

The survival times are very variable, for example regular group
contributor Catharine who died earlier this year was diagnosed only a
few months after my wife, who died in 2000.

As others have said, local radiotherapy is the main weapon against
this form of the disease.  Typically irradiating one tumour will set
it back a couple of years, although it will not destroy it completely,
and it may encourage other smaller tumours to grow faster.  For this
sort of reason the treatment policy is usually to hold back on
treatment until the symptoms get reasonably severe, that way you get
more bang for your radiation buck.  Radiation can usually only be done
once to each site without risking serious collateral damage.

With the further help of hormone therapy, and bone-strengthening drugs
like Zometa, it may get held in check for quite some time, sometimes
as much as ten years.  They do say that if you must get mets, bone is
the place to get them because no-one dies of bone mets.  They will
appear elsewhere, mainly in the torso and skull, eventually they will
most likely spread to soft tissues, liver etc, and become truly
terminal.

Bone mets become eventually painful, and will probably need powerful
painkillers, slow-release morphine is commonly used. An anti-emetic
such as Reglan may help control her reaction to it, also long-term
narcotics will cause constipation and need to be taken with a
laxative. In the later stages Fentanyl as a skin patch can be useful,
it is stronger and may have less side effects: it worked very well for
my wife.  But all that is still a long way off yet.

Of course she will suspect every ache and pain of being another
metastasis site, but don't forget that normal everyday problems still
happen, and life goes on.

It is a good idea at this stage to make plans for the eventuality, and
to do anything that you have been planning 'sometime'.  (We did a
package-tour holiday, something we had never done before.)  The
condition is only going to get worse and all too soon you find that
she is no longer fit to to climb that mountain, go bungee jumping or
whatever.

Tim Jackson