Breast Cancer

My mom, 48 years old has just been diagnosed with Breast Cancer, that has spread to bone and liver. They have choosen to do Hormone Therapy due to it being ER positive and HER 2 neg. Theyve put her on Famara, and then they are given her shots of Goserline and IV Zometa once a month. Just recently she has started radiation treatments to the Femur due to high risk of FX. What can I expect with all this?

[katarina777]

It's really hard to know, even impossible to know, how your mom will respond to her treatments. Many patients (I am a good example), have bad side effects to the estrogen antagonists. if one does not work or makes her too ill, and the side effects are just not tolerable, usually the patient is switched to another drug of the same sort, or slightly different.

Every patient is different, and how they respond to treatment. Some feel pain and severe side effects from one chemo and not another, for others one chemo may not work and then they are switched and hopefully one can be found that both works and is tolerated for a while.

My breast cancer spread to the liver and inspite of the hormone treatment, my condition deterioated very fast. I tird one chemo that made me really sick, and now I get another that has been working so incredibly well, as well as tolerated by me, I feel better than even before I was initially diagnosed, and before there was any metastasis.

How long that will last I don't know, but the liver mets are more dangerous and harder to deal with than the bone mets as the liver is a vital organ. I am saying this so you know that at some point your mom may also be switched to chemotherapy. And as you have said, the radiation is more for pain relief and to hopefully protect bones from fracturing.

Your mother will not be cured but hopefully her life will be prolonged and the quality of her life well enough so she can enjoy living.

In summary, nobody knows how your mom will do and I guess her cancer must be taken one step  at a time, one day at a time. There may be times when she feels not so great and other times when she feels very well. These days improved treatment options allow many women to live for several years past diagnosis of stage 4. We have these days much better nausea medications than ever before, and even chemotherapy is no longer  the same nightmare as it used to be not that long ago.

Radiation is not a problem for most, and it is not painful and rarely makes you really sick;  more tired.

This is all I have to contribute and note that I am no expert, but it usually turns out that the patient herself becomes the expert and knows what's going on the best.

Take care, KATRIN     PS: I am sorry you have to go through this; it's no easier on you than the cancer patient most always.