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Breast cancer now in liver and bones

Hi - my mom was diagnosed with stage 1/2 breast cancer last year. She had the lump removed, no signs of it going to the lymph nodes. She was treated with chemo, radiation and is currently on hercepton. A month ago, her hip started bothering her. She had x-rays, a bone scan and then a CT scan which showed spots in her skull, hip, and two small spots in her liver. Could this all have been metastasizing while she was undergoing treatment like this? She is getting a biopsy of the liver this week but I'm not sure if maybe there is something else she should do. And is this stage 4 then? Does she have the same prognosis as a stage 4 who had no previous treatment?
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Avatar universal
Thanks so much for your response. She had a bone scan in January and everything looked fine. (She had surgery in December.) They didn't remove the lymph nodes - only the tumor which they removed completely (I forget the correct term - but clean something, right?) Thanks again for your response.
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25201 tn?1255580836
If your Mother didn't have scans before or after her treatment last year then these areas of metastisis may have been developing. You state there were no signs of the cancer invading the lymphatic system; were lymph nodes removed at the time of her surgery? Mets to the bones is one of the easiest types to treat and women have survived for many years with this. The liver concern, if when biopsied proves to be cancerous, may require a different type of treatment. There is no way to offer a prognosis in your Mother's case since cancers respond differently to treatment. Stage 4 is Stage 4 no matter if there was previous treatment or not and it also depends on where the cancer has metastisized. Best wishes to both your Mother and you in this difficult time.
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