SAMARIUM THERAPY

You may want to post this question in the stage 4 forum as there are many women there with bone mets. 

I know a little bit about this therapy because my dad's oncologist (he was being treated for a different stage 4 cancer but he had expensive bone mets) was considering using this.  In the end he didn't get this treatment as he had extensive soft tissue involvement which was the source of his pain, not the actual bone tumors.  I did a lot of reading on this treatment.

-It requires a short hospital stay

-It is given intraveneously.

-Unlike external beam radiation, this treatment makes the patient and all of his/her bodily fluids radioactive which is the reason behind the hospital stay.

-Patient may be placed in isolation due to the patient being radioactive.  All bodily fluids are handled as radioactive biohazard waste.

-The radiation dose is far less than external beam radiation.

-It can be given multiple times...in 3-6 month intervals.

-Only works on bone mets.  It will not destroy or affect cells in other parts of the body.  If there are mets in other areas (i.e. lungs, liver), the radiation will not do anything for these mets or the primary tumor if it is still in the patient.  It can only penetrate 8-10 mm of soft tissue if there is a soft tissue tumor surrounding the bone tumor.

-Blood counts should be at adequate levels as the radiation does enter the bone marrow and affect blood counts.

-Has shown to work very well in breast cancer patients.

-Pain relief is within a few days, however, immediately following the treatment there may be a pain flare.

-Can prevent non-painful tumors from becoming painful tumors.

-A bone scan must be done before treatment so see how to dose the radiation (and to see how much will be eliminated through bodily waste).

-This treatment works best at the sites that appear on a bone scan.

-This radioactive isotope behaves similar to calcium, thus it goes directly to the bones.

-The treatment has far fewer side effects when compared to external beam radiation.

-Patient should stay away from young children for a certain time period so young children are not exposed to unnecessary radiation.

-According to my dad's oncologist, this is only produced in 1 location in the US and it is only produced 1 day a week.  It has a very short half-life so the treatment day must be carefully coordinated with delivery day.

Right now this is all that I can remember.  If your mom has a lot of bone mets. and is in pain this will hopefully help fix that pain.  I came to understand it as being a band-aid because the pain can return thus the need for additional treatments.  However, your mom may not need to take as much pain medication if she is currently taking pain medication.  I do not know if this treatment helps lytic bone lesions to rebuilt into healthy bone.

If you have any questions, please post or PM me.  I may be able to answer them.