Was diagnosed 2 years ago with breast cancer & secondary liver . After undergoing chemo (7doubles) I was put in tamoxifen in September '15 - seem to be responding to this but what other treatment (s) are available to me - does any body out there know. ??? My oncologist hasn’t told me of any other treatments just put me on tamoxifen - help !!!
Hi sheep and welcome to our secondary BC family!
From what you have said you have mets in the liver but nowhere else. You will be given a treatment that fits in with your type of SBC and as you are currently on tamoxifen I’m presuming you are hormone positive but HER2 negative. You will be kept on this until progression is detected, usually on a scan. Progression does happen but it can just be the slightest enlargement of liver mets in which case your oncologist will determine what is the next treatment for you. It could be a different type of hormone treatment such as one of the Aromatase Inhibitors such as letrozole or anastrozole or it could be a chemotherapy. Some, such as Capecitabine are far less harsh than the intravenous type and have fewer side effects, although all treatments have some side effects.
If you are doing well on tamoxifen you should try not to worry about what you would have next but rest assured there are plenty of options out there! Particularly as you have had only one type of chemo regime so far. It sounds like you are responding well to tamoxifen which is great, the longer you can stay on one treatment the better in my opinion (and in my experience). When my bone mets were diagnosed in 2008 I had chemotherapy then went on to hormone treatment (anastrozole) which kept me stable for over 4 years. After that I had progression to my liver and have a variety of treatments including Capecitabine and then other chemo. Btw it doesn’t matter as such where your mets are, whether they are bones/liver/lungs you will be given the treatment appropriate to your type of BC which will treat the whole body in a systemic way, each area of mets isn’t treated separately unless something such as radiotherapy is given to relieve pain, especially when you have mets in your bones.
I hope this helps answer your question and stops you worrying about treatments. We are a friendly community on here and support each other in our highs and lows. Even if you haven’t got bone mets you can always join in the ‘Bone mets please join in’ thread in the Living with secondary BC section as we all tend to post updates etc on there. There are also a couple of liver mets threads hanging around these sections so you can look for those and see that you’re not alone.
Take care
Nicky x
Thanks for replying so quickly Nicky - ?Everything’s happened so quickly & the team oncologist I now see is not the oncologist I originally saw & she does not tell me what’s what - just looks at me & says I look well & will see me in 3 months again !
Again thanks for putting my mind at rest & speak to you soon - x