Hi everyone, new to forum, i had breast cancer 2003, and accidentally found out last aug I had stage 4 in bones, pelvis, small bit on vertrabe… .had hip replacement, radiotherapy and am now on hormone therapy and Bone strengtheners . .
I’m just wondering, does anyone else have the same and what time scale are you at. I’ve 2 young kids and it’s heartbreaking to think I won’t be here for them… Had scan last week and was told it’s stable.
I was told 5-8/10 yrs…
Thanks
Hi Stoney,
Sorry you have secondaries/boney mets, I too have SBC which is in my spine, rib & pelvic areas. I was diagnosed with SBC from the beginning, had bilateral BC double mastectomy & straight onto hormone treatment, which has kept the disease stable since! My treatment hasn’t changed and I was initially told that if one of the drugs stopped working they would try something else. There’s new treatments being discovered and def since I was diagnosed. It’s scary when you have young children, but hopefully my experience will give you some hope
I’m on Letrozole, Ibandronic acid, adcal d3 & Zoladex injection.
Hope this helps…sending virtual hugs x
Vanda
Hi stoney
Sorry to hear you now have secondaries but welcome to the forum.
Firstly don’t Google anything regarding prognosis. We are all different, as are our cancers, even though we maybe pigeonholed into our receptor status and therefore treatments.
I have had secondaries for over 12 years now, firstly in the bones and then about 6-7 years ago in my liver. There really have been developments in treatments since I started which have made huge strides in the survival statistics. Something that Googling does not show and why I said not to check!
None of us know how a treatment will work and for how long so it’s difficult to say. Having said that, from my observations of forum users since 2008 when I joined I’d say that people who have a long period of time between their primary and their secondary generally have a good response to treatments. However as I’m not an oncologist, or have a crystal ball that’s just my observation, and, as I’ve said every case is different. The only thing I would say is that, over time, you will learn about how your own cancer responds, it’s what I now know but had absolutely no idea about at the beginning of treatment, I was like a rabbit in the headlights!
Something I have found that is useful is to know about what treatments are currently available for your type of cancer , to keep one step ahead. However many people don’t want to know so it is up to you what you are happy to research (which is where I do say use the internet as you are looking at something specific). Also, if at any time you are unhappy with your treatment choice, made by your oncologist, you are entitled to a second opinion. This is often at a teaching or research hospital where they see far more cases of secondary BC and therefore have more experience than a lot of more local hospitals do.
Nicky x