Hi folks, I'm a lurker. I live in Canada and my wife, Lynne, has metastatic
breast cancer. She was originally diagnosed in July 2004 with inflammatory
breast cancer with 3 distinct tumours in her breast. One was attached to the
chest wall and apparently to one of her ribs. A biopsy of the lumps and of
the sentinel lymph node was positive for breast cancer. The ultrasound, CT,
X-ray, bone scan and MRI examinations showed 8 spots of possible mets in the
liver (described as very small and hardly measurable, however, they grew and
by the time any treatment was effective, three of them were over 2 cm in
size). The cancer was found to be PR+ and strongly Her2 positive. We later
learned that there were some "speckles" on her pelvis and a node in each
lung. With this picture, the prognosis has never been rosy, but not
hopeless. Lynne has had 2 cycles of Herceptin and 7 of Adriamycin. She had a
partial response to the Adriamycin with reduction of the liver mets by about
60 percent. A week ago, she started on a bisphosphonate (Clodronate),
however stopped after the first day when she developed serious nausea and
suffered vomiting. We have a palliative care physician who got her admitted
to hospital. While in hospital, they did a contrast enhanced CT of her
brain. it revealed 3 lesions, the largest just over 2 cm. in size.
We have an appointment with a radiation oncologist next Thursday (the 21st)
and I'm working on getting an early appointment with the treating oncologist
earlier in the week, maybe Tuesday.
The information I've been able to find on the net is confusing. In most
cases it paints a very poor picture of Lynne's future, in some cases, even
with treatment 2 months, but, in most about 7 months. With the multiple
lesions, it looks like surgery is not a probable option and that we will be
looking at whole brain radiation. Many of the items indicated that the
outcome was linked more to the progress against the underlying disease than
to the treatment of the brain mets. I found one recent study published in
March 2005 that gave a much better prognosis with the use of Herceptin.
I have a list of questions I want to ask the 2 oncologists but thought this
might be fodder for the grist mill of this group. I haven't posted my list
as this post is already long enough, suffice it to say that they deal with
the worsening prognosis, the area of the brain involved, the probability of
side effects of the radiation treatment as well as general questions about
the continuing treatment of the bone, liver and lung mets.
Any other suggestions greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Bryan