My mom was just diagnosed after FOURTEEN years - Metastasis

faroutstar

Can anyone help me out here?

My mom fought Stage III B breast cancer in 2007 and has been in remission/cancer free (not sure of terms to use to be honest..) since 2009. She has taken a medicine since then to help recurrence - but it came back. She was HER2 + at the time T2 I believe. I cannot recall to be honest. It was in 8 lymph nodes.

But we went to the ER due to vomiting and insane pain that hit out of no where one night - on the opposite side of the liver. Note, she has yearly updates with her oncologist and had just had it in March and there was nothing to alarm them at all. Nothing. Fast Forward to June 13 and they find "innumerable" lesions on her LIVER. No swelling, no pain on that side - but now that I think of things it would add up as she experienced nausea for a few months, back pain and this was all thrown off to a recent finding of her left renal artery having blockage. We were shocked. After the findings they did a MRI and it confirmed it was indeed "widespread metastatic disease". Her oncologist came to the hospital to give her confirmation. We are now waiting on a biopsy and due to scheduling conflicts it is not until June 29.

I guess I just need to know if anyone has any insight on this recurring in the liver - she is 75 but in GREAT shape. I mean she has had more energy that I do in my 40s!! She is sassy and you can imagine this has crushed her spirit. I feel she feels there is no use for chemo and just to hear what they plan after the biopsy. Note she was told by the oncologist and due to "tumor marker" labs that it was indeed recurrent breast cancer that had spread. She has swollen lymph nodes in other areas by the liver as well.

I am not sure what I am even looking for - I guess any insight or if anyone else had recurrent in the liver at this age - or family members who had and how they did with treatments and how things are going with it? Again, I understand she is 75, but this was out of no where. I mean so much blood work done between her rental artery findings and labs at her oncologist - they were clearly surprised at what they found.

I just need someone to be honest with me as I went through this with my dad and they told him one thing but gave my mom the real news of his prognosis. He lived 6 months after finding out about his lung cancer that had spread to wow...everywhere. They told us it would be easier to say where it was not. So with her fighting her battle in 2007 and my dads cancer fight, I have watched both parents have different outcomes.

Any insight would help. Thanks all. I hope this is the right place for this.

moth

faroutstar, I'm sorry you find yourself here. So, recurrence risk never really goes away, and it's estimated 20- 30% of people have a metastatic recurrence (estimated because nobody has been counting this - that's a whole other issue).

the biopsy results will be vital since with such a long time passing it might be quite different now. If she's ER+ and still HER2+ there are definitely more treatment options on the table & if she's in as you say good health otherwise, she can try a variety of options. There are new treatments specifically for HER2+. I'm not aware of hard rules about what age pts can try various treatments. AFAIK it's very much pt by pt.

But, not going to lie, having mets in an organ like the liver (as opposed to bone only) is a more serious presentation. & Stage 4 is considered incurable. All treatments are to buy time.

Are you interested in actual prognosis? I will post a link to a study based on 2010-2015 de novo pts - not recurrence but diagnosied metastatic from the outset. They probably have slightly better outcomes than recurrence. Otoh, it's been >5 years and we've had a couple new drugs come on the market. Of course no graph can predict where your mother will fall. Some people manage to attain stability and control of their cancer and live for quite a while, and for others, it's like a raging wildfire which is very difficult to even begin to control. Table 3 has a summary based on profile markers and location of mets. https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11...

We have a separate thread for liver mets and also threads for all the various chemos and targetted therapies that people use so to the extent that you want to delve in & research, that's where I'd start.

best wishes

faroutstar

Thank you SO much for the information. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and give me this.

I wish you the best of luck as well. Thank you again.

Sadiesservant

faroutstar, I’m also sorry to hear about your mom. It’s very difficult facing this disease again after so many years. But it may not be time to throw in the towel, particularly if your mother is otherwise healthy. HER2 positive seems to respond very well to treatment and, while each case is unique, I know there are several on this site who have done well for a number of years.

I am now at the 4 1/2 year mark after being diagnosed with mets almost 16 years after my initial diagnosis. Granted, I have only recently had spread to my liver but my MO feels I still have several years left. No guarantees but I’ll take it.

I wish you and your mother all the best.

faroutstar

Sadiesservant,

Thank you so much for your response. I think we are in the panic stage due to the recent finding out and just shock I think. She was very blessed to beat Stage IIIB and that was not even expected. But she did it. Again she was younger. But she is still that same fighter.

I should not use google for things - so I thought I would find a forum and I see so many amazing stories of survival and strength it gives me some peace in my soul for her second fight.

I am so sorry for your recent diagnosis of the liver mets. You women on this forum are so strong and helping others with info on your own fight is inspiring. I see some of your signatures that list your diagnosis, treatments and the years that have passed really put me at a loss for words. The strength and support is just amazing. I will keep you in my thoughts and thank you again for taking the time to respond.