I’m writing on behalf of my mum who was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in the bones over a month ago. She has been taking Ferma (letrozole) since then but she is in a lot of pain with it. She has sore joints and muscles and often finds it painful to walk about. She constantly feels sick. She is about to start having intravenous bisophosphonates. I was wondering if anyone could offer their opinion. Will the pain from taking Ferma wear off eventually or will she always suffer? Will the bisophosphonates help with pain?
I have been looking at these discussions for a little while now and I really admire how positive and supportive everyone is and I wish you all the best!
Hi, like your Mum I have bone secondaries, I was diagnosed with them in 2003. I’ve been on a very similar hormonal treatment to Femara and things did get better over a few months. The bisphosphonates should help with the pain too although at first they can (not always) make things more painful. I had bisphosphonates infusions for over 2 years and although the first ever infusion made me feel awful (flu like) the next day all the following infusions were trouble free. I now have bisphosphonate tablets as my veins are troublesome. There are pain meds that could help your Mum, not over the counter ones but ones her GP could prescribe.
Wishing her well with her treatment…xx
Breast Cancer Care have a leaflet on bisphosphonates which will provide you with lots of information and may be able to answer some of the questions you have about your Mum receiving this treatment.
This leaflet can be found by following the Iink below:-
Hi there Nipper,
I can’t help with answering your question but do please get your Mum to tell her doctor about the pain, there is no need for her to suffer pain like that,
hugs
Hi Nipper, I don’t have secondaries, but do have osteoarthritis due to some 30 yrs of steroids, in both hips, hands and feet. The pain was excruciating until I started oral bisphosphonates. I take Alendronic Acid once a weekly and twice daily Calcichew/Vit.D and the pain has almost gone and is now bearable. Worse at night in bed for some reason I don’t understand. I occasionally take diclofenac if the pain is really bad. The only problem with taking an oral bisphosphonate is you have to take it first thing in the morning, with water, and not lay down for a half hour. I am usually gasping for my cup of tea! Not that I am ever served tea in bed. My GP said a lot of people cannot tolerate alendronic acid, but I have no side effects. I read recently that there is a new bisphosphonate that can be injected just once a year - I’ll be first in the queue when it is available here. Unfortunatly, I can’t remember the name - should have cut the article out.
Thank you all for your thoughts and comments. Mum is about to start zoledronic (intravenous bisonophoshates). I have heard mixed things about this. I hope it works for her!!!
I’ve been on I.V. bisphosphonates for the past 3 years and my bones are certainly stronger than they were (have it in my spine) - this was borne out last week when I slipped and fell on our kitchen floor! If that had happened 3 years ago I can’t even bear to think about it!!!
Sometimes, if the pain is severe, they will also do radiotherapy on the affected part which takes about 3 weeks to kick in but certainly worked in my case.
I’ve been on Femera for 7 months now. Joint aches especially bad in the morning. I mentioned this at my last appt at the marsden and they suggested Glucosamine, available from Holland and Barrett.
I’ve only just started to take it buit had noticed that the pain was easing anyhow.