muscle mets

[mommatialuv]

My 73 year old mother was diagnosed with lung cancer in Jan 07,she had her right upper lobe succesfully removed with no mets. then in July 07 she was diagnosed with Colon cancer (not from the lung) she underwent another succesfull surgery and preventative chemo for the colon as there was minimal lymph node mets. Yesterday she had an MRI due to lower left back pain. IT showed a mass in the paraspinous muscle. She will be scheduled for a biopsy next week. What is the likely hood that this is a lung or colon met. if it is a met what is the prognosis.

[mommatialuv]

I have another question,
My mom's oncologist has decided to see her before ordering the biopsy. Do you know why he would have decided that? I'm afraid he is going to say it would be useless to do the biopsy given her current health status.I wonder what can be done even if the biopsy is negative, she is in a great deal of pain, when she takes her meds ( hydrocodone 5/500) 2 every 4-6 hours, her pain goes down to a 4-5 on the pain scale then she sleeps a few  hours upon waking the pain is back to a 8.5-9.5 within an hour or two  and she medicates again. Even if it is not cancer or mets, how long can she live like this she only gets out of bed to use the bathroom and sits up long enough to eat a few bites at a time, two or three times a day if we are lucky. The rest of the time she is lying down, usually sleeping or wishing she was sleeping. How much damage would it do to have a "mass" 7.5x5.3x3.5cm removed from the paraspinous muscle? Again I cannot  find any information on this type of surgery.

[mommatialuv]

Thank you so much for your speedy response. I was shocked to find out she had 2 primary cancers, I didn't know it was possible. The MRI was ordered by her PCP, done late Thursday and her oncologist just got the results late Friday,so He may still order the tests your mentioned. I will be contacting him first thing Monday morning. Do you or anyone know of any good web sites where I can get good information on soft tissue mets or primary. Like Paul MD said all I am getting is that it is very rare for either. I have read a couple "studies" but the volume of cases is always very low 30-50. I just like to go to the doc prepared with questions, I think it saves time. IN the mean time thanks for the thoughts and prayers and please keep praying.

[PaulMD]

Hi there.

It is really rather unusual for a person to have two primary cancers and the difficulty in managing cases like hers becomes evident now that there is a new lesion.  The paraspinous muscle mass can be both from the lungs and the colon with a tendency leaning more from the latter.  However, other tests can be done to pinpoint the real origin like tumor markers (CEA for colon cacer, TTF-1 for lung cancer) as this will guide further treatment.  Another possibility can also be a new, most unusual, rare, third primary cancer.  I hope he biopsy will be uneventful, and that things will be made clear by that time.  Regards and God bless