Can CT scan miss bone mets?

Katiha

Hello everybody!

My mom has been diagnosed with triple negative 2 years ago, stage 1. Had chemotherapy, radiation all nine yards.

in September she started having a stange pain in her ribs. Pain lasted 5 days and stopped. Then she had another pain in her ribs in December. Pain got worse.

In January she had full CT scan, bloodwork. Everything came clear.

this Sunday she started experiencing pain again and said it got much worse then it was previous 2 times. She said feels like the rib is broken. She wants to go get x-ray as soon as she will be able to walk again as right now she just stays in bed.

I just don’t understand what could it be? If that was mets, would CT scan show it?

Thank you.

Kate

cyathea

Hi Kate,

I'm sorry that your mother is having this rib pain. I'm not a doctor so I can only tell you about my own experience and what I've read. I had both lobular and ductal breast tumors and a CT found a bone lesion on my spine. That said, it is known that some lobular cancers don't show up on imaging for some people.

I would encourage you to ask your mother's doctor for more information or tests. It is possible that this current pain in not related to the previous pain that was checked in January. Maybe your mother has osteoporosis that led to rib fractures that caused the intermittent pain. If your mother had radiation then the lingering effects of treatment could be causing the pain. (I have occasional rib pain and daily back pain like this.)

You mentioned that she is staying in bed. This is concerning for her lungs. The pain could be a lung problem instead of a bone problem, and a new CT would show if there was a lung problem. If that's the case then her doctor might tell her to do breathing exercises with a spirometer to strengthen her lungs (also something that I had to do last year.)

My mother also had BC twice, with 30 years between diagnoses. She just finished hormone therapy (which often causes joint pain.) At 75, she tells me that lots of things cause her pain, and that is unfortunately just part of aging.

I wish you and your mother good/better health. ((Hugs))