I have had bone secondaries since Jan 07 but when I was on holiday in July I found a lump under my armpit. A biopsy revealed this to be cancer and a CT scan showed 2 tiny nodules in my lungs, too small to be identified. My Onc changed my medication from Femera to Exemestane (aromasin), but last night I found another lump under my arm so of course I feel that the aromasin isn’t working and suspect the two tiny nodules are probably lung secondaries so I was wondering if anyone else with lung secondaries could tell me a bit more about their experiences as there always seems to be more threads about liver secondaries at the minute.
I have secondaries in the pleural cavities in my lung but I didn’t have lumps under my arms just in my neck by my collar bone. I was also very breathless as well.
I had the first lump removed when dx and sent off for histology. Another lump came up in the same place but onc told me that this was a marker showing that the cancer was still in my body.
I started off by having FEC and am now on Armidex and Zoladex any all of my mets are now stable.
I don’t know if that helps but as long as you are having some treatment it doesn;t always mean that the cancer is not being controlled sometimes it takes a bit of time
Linda, I have lung mets and have don’t have any lumps.After I suspected lung mets I thought the area around my collar bone looked thicker. LOL I had also gained some weight so not sure if the thickening is from the mets or just fat. I do have mets in my lymp nodes in my chest and collar bones. The thickening doesn’t feel like a lump though.If you’re concerned get it checked. I had coughing, sneezing and pneumonia and short of breath. I have developed allergies since my mets dx so I’m not sure how much of the coughing was due to cancer, pneumonia or allergies. Gosh this is never easy!! Funnyface
Linda - I would have thought all the lumps you can feel in you neck/armpit etc are lymph node involvement as your lungs are inside the ribcage and inside the pleural lining.
My 2nd set of secondaries started as a lump under my right arm pit but I had been short of breath for a long time but no scan or test/xray showed any problem with my lungs. Eventually in Sept 06, my lung mets were diagnosed. I have a more unusual type as my lung secondaries are in the whole of my lymph system of my lungs (lymphangitis) and I had ‘suspicious but not cancerous lumps near my heart on both sides’. This made me breathless but vineralbine really helped this and my breathing returnd to normal. Since then, these 'suspicious lumps ’ have turned into a large solid mass which stretched from the left side of my heart to my right but the real problem is that it has grown and squashed my oesiphagus so I an only eat pureed food.
Lots of people seem to develop either nodules inside their chest or else the secondaries develop in the pleural linings which often cause fluid build up. Yet again, bc spread is not predictable.
Lymphangitis causes a lot of inflammation in the lung so I’m often on dexamethasone which improves my breathing greatly and I take a very strong steroid inhaler.If you develop lung secondaries in a different place, steroids may not help - it’s just not that simple!!!
There are lots of treatments for you, I would have thought especially as you are hormone positive and some seem to take longer than others to kick in and help shrink the tumours so don’t get too despondent. I know it is a huge shock to find your cancer has spread.
There are threads here about lung spread but as there seems to be so many different places it settles in and causes diferent problems, it is often hard to find someone who has the same type of you.
Unfortunately, I have a very aggressive form of bc and have multiple mets now and worked my way through lots of different chemos and believe it or not I have always felt better on chemo than off as it relieves my symptoms.
Please feel free to ask anymore questions and I will try to help you.
Sorry to hear your news and I hope the treatment starts to make a difference to you soon.
When d you go back to the onc? Hopefully, not to long or else i would start to chase and get an earlier appointment.
Good luck
Kate
Linda, I am ER +, PR- and HER2 -. I am 53 yrs old and started with lung mets in Nov 05. I live in the states so I have had some treatments that aren’t available in the UK. I started with Lupron injections called Prostap in the UK. This was to shut down my ovaries. I did 4 months of these and my tumors grew. The onc said I needed chemo so we stopped the injections and he gave me a combo of abraxane and avastin. I had two cycles of this combo and my tumors shrunk enough to take all my symptoms away and I was able to breathe again. I did this combo for 6 months and then the onc wanted me to have a break due to the side effects I was having. I then had an 11 month break and we thought I was symptomatic in the spring of 0, because I was coughing and my lungs were congested again even though the tumors remained the same. He then put me on vinorelbine. This spring we thought I was symptomatic again and the tumors were still stable. We made a choice to change chemos again and were going to do it in two weeks time, well in that two weeks my coughing and postnasal drip went away. We then decided it might have been allergies both Springs qne kept me on the vinorelbine. I will be on it 15 months in Sept. My tumors have not grown since March of 06. Gosh I hate saying that don’t want to jinx myself. I have a scan coming up the end of Sept. I just started coughing again on the last two weeks so I looked up a pollen count and went up the day I started the coughing. Take care, Funnyface
Thanks so much for telling me your stories. As you say, everybody is so different, but vinorelbine sounds like a good drug.
Kate - was your lump under your armpit painful at all because my first lump (under my armpit) isn’t but the second one closeby is? By the way, I always read your threads and hope you have got over your stay in hospital, and the stent is working well.
My next appt. with onc is scheduled for Mon 15th Sept. however I will ring him tomorrow when the kids are back at school to see whether it should be brought forward.
Linda - both my lump ie the one at diagnosis and the secondary one were painful. That’s why I was initially told by the GP and the radiologist that these lumps were not cancer!!!
I’d try to bring your appointment forward - the worrying of waiting is not worth it.
I was so looking forward to school hols and now guiltily can’t wait for them to go back!!!
Kate