Faslodex and bone mets

BJKinNebr

Just wondering if anyone else has been given Faslodex in an attempt to get their tumor marker down and what or if they had any side affects. I had my first injection 2 weeks ago and will get another one tomorrow. The first one made me pretty sore and a little sick. I'm just into my third year of chemo for stage 4 Metastatic breast cancer. The first two years went well. My tumor marker dropped steadily but over the past 3 months, it has started to go back up. I'm trying not to read too much into this, but that little voice in the back of my head is whispering this is the beginning of a change for the worse. Any comments would be appreciated.

blainejennifer

BJK,

Welcome to Cancer Whack-a-Mole. That's the game for we metsters. You stay on one treatment protocol, till your cancer cells learn how to evade it, then you go on to the next one.

You sound like you got two years out of your first-line treatment, and are using Faslodex as your second-line. Two years is pretty good! That's towards the upper end of PFS (progression free survival - what an awful term, right?) for any one treatment. Granted, some people here have had amazing runs on treatments, years and years of PFS on a single treatment.

I had a good time with Faslodex. It's the only anti-hormonal I've ever gotten traction with. I'll bet it works great for you. You tell that little voice that this is only the beginning for you, and you are nowhere near the end. Stage Four is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay strong, and be good to yourself.

Do a search here for Faslodex. There's a great thread - mind you, it's huge, as a lot of people have gotten benefit from it. But read up on how to make sure that your nurse knows how to prep and inject the Faslodex so that you don't get a sore butt.

BJKinNebr

Thanks so much for all of your information. I had read somewhere that it can cause the bone mets to get worse??? I guess there are trade offs for everything and everyone responds differently. I've been on Adriamycin and taxotere.... still taking the taxotere. So far, so good

pajim

Faslodex kept my bone mets away for three years. I ended up taking it for four years (yep, my rear end is still a pincushion) as the cancer was growing very slowly. I second blainejennifer's suggestion to try the "Faslodex Girls 2014" thread. It's got all the tips on how to receive it without pain, and when not to worry about side-effects.

Here's hoping Faslodex will tank your tumor markers once again.

Gailbert

After 22 years my breast cancer Mets into my spine. I was doing ok on Ibranc but stopped working so I am now on Faslodex. Only had two sets of two shots in month of March. Not much help but would like to post our progress. I will get back on xgeva shots as soon as finish some dental work. I live in Houston area so going to MD Anderson. Gail.

blainejennifer

The nice thing about Faslodex is that you'll get to have hair again. I've never heard of that drug causing bone mets to grow. Maybe someone was confused when it stopped working for them? On the other hand, tamoxifen absolutely caused my bone mets to grow, or it sure felt like that. My TMs went from 800 to 3,000 in two months while I was on that drug.

What I mean to say is that your mileage will vary with all the different treatments. What works great for you might not work at all for the next person who tries it. Personalized pathology is trying to narrow down the "throw spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks" approach to chemotherapy, but there is still a great deal of improvisation in figuring out what drug to try next. I've heard of too many people getting a benefit from a drug that their personalized genomics testing said wouldn't work (and vice-versa) to put all my faith in that testing procedure. I am sure that as we accumulate more data about who responds to what, that the approach will become more informed.