Hi
I’ve joined this site to ask if anyone has been diagnosed with secondary cancer in the liver. I had a mastectomy for my triple negative tumour almost ten months ago, then FEC chemo, but I’ve been having discomfort in the area where my liver is since before the chemo. It’s come and gone but in the last four weeks the ache / pain has been constantly there, making me need to sit up straight to relieve it. I’m also having a couple of other symptoms of cancer in the liver, but not other symptoms of gallstones. My G.P. is referring me for an ultrasound scan to check for gallstones, of course.
I wondered if anyone has experienced triple negative breast cancer spreading to their liver, and has any information about treatment and life expectancy when this type of cancer has spread there. The treatment for triple negative will be different from that for other types of breast cancer, and I think the life expectancy will be too but the information I can find is all about other types of breast cancer that has metastasised.
I’m one of those people who prefer to know the size and shape of a problem, I’ll worry if I don’t know what I may have to deal with. I’ve been looking at these forums for information about cancer on and off for over ten months now and I know that a lot of people offer kindly reassurances to people worrying about issues, but I don’t need that, it wouldn’t work for me anyway. I’ll feel much better if someone can give me some information though.
It’s very hard looking through the forums, I keep finding so many sad stories. There are many people who are having / have had a worse hand dealt to them than I have. My best wishes to you all.
Hello NotYetHalfWay,
Sorry to read of your concerns. My experience is totally different from yours but I know there are TN ladies with recurrences and secondaries who post on here. This rpely should BUMP up your post. A couple of links to relevant threads are these:
http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/comment/2060601#comment-2060601
and
Hopefully someone will be along soon who is able to answer your exact questions.
One thought, perhaps after the weekend you could call the helpline people 0808 800 6000 as they are very knowledgeable and helpful.
Hi RevCat
Thanks for your reply and the links. I’m still waiting for the ultrasound scan, which will be in 3 weeks’ time and then it seems that I will have to wait another week or two for the result. In the meantime the pain is worsening both in intensity and the size of the area involved, and it looks like I sometimes have blood in my urine. It’s very difficult to not worry.
Hi there,
My situation is slightly different. I was diagonised with secondary TN in the first instance last august. It had spread into lymph nodes and neck and 2 tumours in liver. Hence they could not take tumour from breast out as priority was to stop spread of disease. I had 11 sessions of taxol and avastin - did not work and have now started me on ec chemo. They are not overly concerned with the liver right now as they believe there are other treatments available priority is still to control the spread. I hope your scans are ok and keep your chin up. Wishing you well.
Just seen this thread and would like to know how you are doing. I’m due to start Capecitabine soon but over the last week have had a return of nausea which my onc thought was down to pressure from skull mets. However after rads to my skull the nausea did go only to return a few weeks later. I’m now concerned that it may be connected to possible liver mets. The feeling of discomfort you describe and sitting up to alleviate it is also familiar to me. what was the outcome of your scan? X