Skin Mets

Does anyone have experience of treatment for skin mets? I have Her2+ breast cancer. My oncologist tried TDM1 and that made my lymph node cancer dormant. But did not stop the Skin mets. Then she put me on my current chemo Capecitabine (which has few side effects) It is dealing well with the lymph  nodes but again  the skin mets continue to grow. I have had two rounds of electro chemotherapy, which have been successful in part. Seeming to at first kill of mets but after a few weeks the mets find somewhere else to pop up. My Oncologist is now talking about trying Trastuzumab deruxtecan(Enhertu) Which seems to have horrible side effect and no promises it will deal with the skin mets. Has anyone tried a topical treatment imiquimod or 5-fluorouracil cream.

Hi Legoland

I can’t answer your question as you’re ahead of me in treatment. I’m just finishing cycle 19 of cape, my first line treatment. Few side effects?? Blood and tumour markers way below average for a ‘normal’ adult. MRI says tumour is stable. CT scan reveals nothing new. But still my skin mets grow. They are strings of small lumps of varying sizes and I can feel them hardening and beginning to merge. It means I can’t enjoy a time of being stable because there’s evidence to the contrary. Electrochemotherapy has been suggested at some stage but Trodelvy is lined up for me next (NICE willing) as I’m TN.

I wanted to say that there are a couple of women in one of the Facebook groups I belong to who have sung the praises of imiquimod for their skin mets. I can’t say anything beyond that but I’ll have a search if I can. It could be one of three!

Have any of your skin mets been problematic - sore, painful, open? I don’t want to Google but I’ve no idea where these are going,

Jan x

Hi. I’ve just been diagnosed with a recurrence of skin mets. I was triple positive, diagnosed April 2021, but also had an area of affected skin. The cancer has recently recurred in the skin of my breast whilst I was still on treatment (Phesgo). I’ve had a mastectomy to clear the skin but the margins were not clear. They’re now talking Kadcyla, but I wondered what other treamtnets are available and how you’re getting on? I react quite badly to chemo which is a worry. 

I was diagnosed with Cutaneous Metastatic Breast Cancer last November (Nov 2023) and found out about a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC that started this past February. I was able to get into the trial and it is truly a miracle. My nodules and lesions are healing! I am participating in phase II of the trial and phase I had an 80% success rate.

I’m hoping that this message reaches others with CMBC because there are 6 spots left in the clinical trial so there is still space if you want to join. The trial involves a noninvasive drug that you take through an IV (the only side effect was that I was light sensitive for 3 weeks) and the next day they use an infrared laser to activate the drug. The laser then kills the tumors from the inside out. Several weeks after the treatment, scabs started forming on my skin began to heal. I met with my doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering today and found out that they were still taking patients for the clinical trial. I want to get the word out to as many people as possible because this is truly a game changer. It is turning what is normally a dire prognosis into a miracle. Let me know if you would like more information.

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