Continue with Femara or start Afinitor/Aromasin combo?

Annasa

Dear all,
My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in January 2015. The cancer had spread in the lungs, lymph nodes and bones. My mother refused to undergo chemo (2 oncologists suggested chemo and one hormonal therapy alone) as she had just lost her husband who underwent a painful chemo experience (she has also lost my dad from cancer 20 years ago). As the cancer was HER2 +, she opted for hormonal therapy which included a daily dosage of the fermara pill and a Zometa drip every 3 weeks. Her cancer marker CA 15-3 was 230 last January and dropped to 75 in June. In November it went up to 98 and is now (January 2016) still around 95. The bone exam also showed a very small new met in one of her vertibraes. Her doctor today suggested she switches to a combo of Afinitor/Aromasin instead but failed to give her more details on side effects and whether she could go back to Femara at a later stage. Do you think this means that Fermara is not really working?
Any thoughts or similar experiences would be much appreciated!
I fear that the doctors are not looking after her properly and fail to explain the differences between the drugs and what this actually means. She is also meant to get some new opinions form another onc but any similar experiences from this forum would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you and good health to all!

Moderators

Dear Annasa, Welcome to the community. We are sorry to hear about your mom and glad that you reached out her on her behalf. Here is a link to information from our site about Afinitor/Aromasin. You also may want to post in the stage 4 Forum. Take a look here at some of the topics or post a new topic. Stay connected here. You also may want to look at the forum for caregivers for support for yourself. Let us know if you need any help. The MOds