23 years old with breast cancer with bone metastasis

shlomit · New User Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

hi everyone im from israel, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer with bone metastasis, we started treatment with tamoxipen daily, aredia once in a month and lucrine every 3 months.
the blood test show beafor we start this treatment this marcks:
CA-15.3 : 128
CEA: 1028
now afret 6 weeks of treatment we did another blood test that show this marcks:
CA-15.3 :240
CEA: 3880
how can this happen, shouldnt the hormonal treatment to stop the development of the disease?, and why the markers are grow up so much?!
we now stop with the hormonal threatment and we soon begin with chemotherapy.
can sameone tell me how can this happen, what should we do now?

Vee Smith · Moderator Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 789 Location: UK

Hello, Shlomit - how awful for you.

I am surprised that chemo has not already been used. It is normal here to reduce the tumour and control the mets as soon as possible. Tamoxifen will not stop aggressive cancer development. It is designed to interfere with oestrogen and its development, and to maintain a steady state.

When you ask what should you do now, do you mean in terms of finding out what will happen under chemo? Or do you mean you want to find out what the doctors are thinking?

You need to find out what kind of cancer this is, what stage it is at, what possible treatments are available.

Here is a good place to start looking: http://breastcancer.about.com/od/definition/a/bc_definition.htm

shlomit · New User Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

i do know what kind of cancer this is and the stage of it but asteel i just cant understend why the markers are grow so much despite tamoxipen.
and i wanted to know same more about the kinds of chemo that been given at this stage.
thank you.

Muttsmom

There are many chemos out there, but different ones are used for different kind of cancers, including different kind of breast cancers. The Aridia is used a lot to strenghten the bones, but it's not chemo, but good part of a plan. You need to ask why she's not getting chemo. Do you have her pathology report?
_________________
Nancy
2/14/02 ILC 43 - 5.5 cm 9+/16 nodes
Stage IIIA er/pr+ Her2-
2/02 MRM
FECx6 radsx33
Tamoxifen - Arimidex (chemo induced menopause)
4/03 SM w/bilat. recon.
9/03 expanders removed
5/04 repair reconst. disaster
10/04 Actonel for bone/joint pain from Arimidex
NED - 5 years
3/07 Diabetes
In memory of Kim 12/1/04

shlomit · New User Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

yes i have her pathology report.
60-70% are estrogen receptors positive and 30% are progesterone receptors positive

Muttsmom

Then Tamoxifen is what she would need to take but she needs chemo 1st. Have they done a mastectomy or anything?
_________________
Nancy
2/14/02 ILC 43 - 5.5 cm 9+/16 nodes
Stage IIIA er/pr+ Her2-
2/02 MRM
FECx6 radsx33
Tamoxifen - Arimidex (chemo induced menopause)
4/03 SM w/bilat. recon.
9/03 expanders removed
5/04 repair reconst. disaster
10/04 Actonel for bone/joint pain from Arimidex
NED - 5 years
3/07 Diabetes
In memory of Kim 12/1/04

shlomit · New User Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

no they havent done any surgery yet, is this o.k.?
should'nt they do it beafore the chemo?

Muttsmom

Some onco's choose to do chemo 1st to shrink the tumor and then do the surgery. More have surgery done 1st, then see an onco. I like the surgery 1st like I had, just because they know exactly what they are dealing with. With chemo 1st, they don't know what size the tumor really was, because surrounding tissue can be cancerous and with the chemo shrinking it, there's no way to be sure of the size of tumor and nodes involved etc. In your sister's case, since it has already spread to the bones, the size of the tumor isn't a factor as far as treatment goes. I'm just still surprised that they did chemo after everything else and after 6 weeks, decided that Tamoxifen didn't work. You take that for 5 years AFTER chemo. I started taking it after chemo and before I started radiation.

I personally would get another opinion. They need to get down to some aggressive treatment.
_________________
Nancy
2/14/02 ILC 43 - 5.5 cm 9+/16 nodes
Stage IIIA er/pr+ Her2-
2/02 MRM
FECx6 radsx33
Tamoxifen - Arimidex (chemo induced menopause)
4/03 SM w/bilat. recon.
9/03 expanders removed
5/04 repair reconst. disaster
10/04 Actonel for bone/joint pain from Arimidex
NED - 5 years
3/07 Diabetes
In memory of Kim 12/1/04

Cindy · Senior User Joined: 01 Dec 2004 Posts: 156

[quote="shlomit"]hi everyone im from israel, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer with bone metastasis, we started treatment with tamoxipen daily, aredia once in a month and lucrine every 3 months.
the blood test show beafor we start this treatment this marcks:
CA-15.3 : 128
CEA: 1028
now afret 6 weeks of treatment we did another blood test that show this marcks:
CA-15.3 :240
CEA: 3880
how can this happen, shouldnt the hormonal treatment to stop the development of the disease?, and why the markers are grow up so much?!
we now stop with the hormonal threatment and we soon begin with chemotherapy.
can sameone tell me how can this happen, what should we do now?[/quote]

Hi Shlomit. So sorry to hear about your sister's diagnosis. At that young age and being receptor positive, her cancer is probably really aggressive. At first when I read your post, I thought that maybe she was receptor negative and that is why the tamoxifen wasn't working. Then I read further down that she has tested as receptor positive. From the turmor marker tests you have listed, it appears that the tamoxifen and other treatments are not working. Sometimes if the tumor is really large, the doctors will try to first shrink it with chemotherapy. If the tumor is not really large, they generally will remove it, first. It could be that because they have not removed the tumor, it is causing the markers to get higher. I would bet that if they removed the tumor, the markers would go down substantially, especially with the treatment she is being given. If that didn't do it, then I would think they would look into chemo. Keep us updated.
_________________
Where is the cure???
www.truefacesofbreastcancer.org
www.diepbreastreconstruction.org
www.bcsisters.org/forum
www.mybreastcancerstore.com

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