Radiation

Presently I am on Megace and Aredia, but considering going on radiation.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 and have had 3 re-lapse.  My cancer is now in my hip area or what they medically call, right iliac wing.  No severe pain, until yesterday when I went to work out. Originally I had the cancer in my breast, then 6-8 months later it went to my liver.  I recovered from that, although it almost killed me.  I agreed to go on the Stem cells treatment, which was a nightmare. Anyway I fully recovered from that than, another re-lapse.  I told my doctor I wanted to have surgery in my liver, so that is what we did.  I recovered from that and my liver is fine.  Now I am dealing with my hip area.  I have read that Aredia and Megace combined together can give someone a long and productive life.  But I want this cancer to go, and I also want some radiation.  Will the radiation help with decreasing the lesion in my hip? There is also another clinical trial being done on another type of Aredia, but do not know the name and they say it is supposed to be even better.  Can you give me some pointers?

Thank you.

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear January, In breast cancer that has metastasised to the bone or liver the goal of treatment is to control the disease.  The reason for doing radiation to the hip would be for relief or prevention of pain, or to prevent fracture. Radiation has some side effects which you should discuss with your oncologist and radiation oncologist so you would be fully aware of the risks and benefits in order to make an informed decision about whether or not to have this treatment at this time.

The medication you may be talking about is another biphosphonate called Zoledronate.  This has been FDA approved for treatment of high calcium levels in the blood, however its effectiveness in terms of bone metastasis is still being evaluated in clinical trials.  The action of Zoledronate is similar to that of Aredia, and whether there are advantaqes of one treatment over the other that is still being studied.