Chemo for Bone Mets

Hi Ladies

I haven’t posted for a while but just wanted to find out your experiences :-).

I was diagnosed with primary bc and bone mets in July 2007 and had FEC, mastectomy and taxotere, followed by tamoxifen, I was clear until around 3 months ago. A hotspot has shown up again on my pelvis which I apparently now need chemo for as it has grown slightly even though I have been on bondronat infusions.

When I saw my onc he mentioned Gemzar or a tablet form of chemo (can’t remember the name!)- does anybody have any experiences of these, will I lose my hair again?!

Thanks, and I hope you’re all well

xx

Hi,

I was diagnosed July 07 too but had chemo first. One of the chemos I had was Gemzar or gemcitabine as it’s also known. I had it with paclitaxel (taxol) and it was doable. My hair had already gone as I’d had 4 lots of EC first but have a feeling the gem may not affect your hair. Fingers crossed !

I had bone mets in my sternum amongst other places and they disappeared between the first bone scan at diagnosis and the second after chemo and mx and anc. Still have them in spine and ribs though and am on zometa for them alongside zoladex and arimidex.

Hope it works for you and gets the blighters !

Hi

Haven’t had Gemzar but think the oral chemo he most likely is talking about is capecitebine (also known as xeloda). I was on that for nearly a year and was NED for much of that time (my mets are in the liver though rather than the bones). There are many other ladies on the forum who are on/have had capecitebine, some staying on it for many years very successfully.

Assuming it is capecitebine he is talking about, you take it twice a day for 2 weeks and then have a week off. I worked throughout (4 days a week for the NHS) and found it very do-able, although there are of course some who don’t. Biggest problem for me was sore feet and hands, and some indigestion (which was quite easily controlled with lansoprazole). My hair was absolutely fine - I gather some people have some hair thinning but total hair loss is very rare.

There are a couple of threads currently I think about capecitebine/xeloda which might help. Whatever you go onto hope it is successful!

Kay xx

Hi Tish,

I have had extensive bone mets since 2002 and am on herceptin and zometa (up until a few months ago it had been pamidronate).

It sounds from what you say as if you had the pelvis hot spot before, and it has grown now. How old is the previous scan your onc is comparing the latest one with - to say that it has grown? I am just wondering because my bone mets showed considerably more growth from the original dx when they were scanned a few months later. But the onc could not say if the growth was rapid between dx and starting the bone drug or whilst on the bone drug. I hope this is making sense. Have they suggested attacking it with some radiotherapy.

I have been having a lot of pain for nearly 2 years now and assumed it was because of the extent of the bone damage. It is only very recently that my onc has thought some chemo might help although no change had been showing up on the scans. But it was a year since the last one so I asked if they could be repeated and indeed now there is change but it is a soft tumour next to the lower spine and we are trying to treat it with just radiotherapy because to be honest the thought of chemo again fills me with horror. I guess in the end I will have to give in but am hoping the radiotherapy will work.

I don’t know how you feel about chemotherapy again and wondered what your oncologist would say about treatment with just rads.

Dawn
xx

Hi All

Thanks for your messages :slight_smile:

Saw my onc last week and he’s starting me on gemzar and navelbine, he said because of my age it’s the best thing to do as I’m only 29 :-(. I believe this chemo isn’t too harsh…or so I’ve heard anyway!

Dawn - yes I did have the pelvis hot spot from diagnosis in 2007, it didn’t show on follow up scans until a few months ago and now it’s reared its ugly head again unfortunately, poo! Hope you get on well with your radiotherapy and don’t end up back on the dreaded chemo!

Hey ho, gotta go, back to work tomorrow, hate that sunday evening feeling!

Tish xx