Breast w/ bone mets

My wife has a breast cancer, she was undergo of operation remove her right breast, after taking of tamoxifen for 3 years she got bone mets. Last Jan 2007 up to Oct 2007 she under go for 20 sesion of  radiation thyrapy and 6 cycle of chemothyrapy. She got a bone scan after a month but still have the mets. what is the best way to control/ ellimenate this bone mets.

glenn

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi. Aside from chemotherapy and radiation therapy, treatment for bone metastases should include intravenous bisphosphonates (examples: pamidronate, zoledronic acid).  These drugs not only control the spread of bone metastases, they also help repair the damaged bone eaten up by the tumor and relieve the pain in the area.

A bone scan taken just a month after treatment will not likely show any changes from the original scan.  Bone which is in the process of recovery and repair would not show up any differently in the scan compared with active metastases.  So the effectiveness of treatment of bone metastases depends on clinical improvement rather than the bone scan.  The treatment is working if there is marked decrease in bone pain and a return of the patient's functioning (example: the patient is able to walk again instead of being bedridden).