Hormonal Treatment for Stage IV

Hi Beancounter and welcome!

Nanapat, I don't think high or low grade makes any difference.  The AI's starve the tumor cells by stopping our bodies from producing the estrogen and progesterone so they cannot reproduce and hopefully die so the response should be a good one no matter what the grade.

Hello All

I am a newly diagnosed Stage 4 with a bone met.  I already have Fibromyalgia so I have joint pain all the time.  I am apprehensive about Femara because I see all the posts about the joint pain that it causes, and add that to what I have, I would not be able to work because of the constant pain!  Is there a different medication that would be as good without the SE's?  I will also have Zometa, which I have heard can make you feel like you were hit by a Mac truck after the first dose.  

Thank you.

Amy 

Hi! I relatively new to the list. My wife has been for about two months on FEMARA and ZOMETA. She was diagnosed last August with extensive liver mets, peritoneal lymph node mets and spinal mets (small but there they are). She had 18 weekly administrations aof Taxol which reduced the liver tumor burden by 80%. After that our onc suggested we switch to a hormonal as the tumor is strongly ER/PR positive (95 and 90 respectively). Plus she is HER2 neg. This week we gained access to AFINITOR. Initial diagnosis 12 years ago.

Could you please provide feedback with regard to FEMERA efficiency? Any reported long runs?

Many thanks, Grigoris. 

pampam - you must be relieved to be finished rads - so glad that you had little discomfort. Hoping that the Femara continues to treat you well with little or no SEs

Grigori, I have been on Femera for almost 2 1/2 years and have had some regression early on and have been stable now for about the past year. It has been very good to me - mild SE's such as joint pain. I lead a pretty normal life - work fulltime, still play tennis and golf, and do whatever I want. Most people who did not know me at the time of my diagnosis have no idea I live with cancer.

My cancer also was very high er/pr+ (90+) and her2-, it had also spread to my liver & bones.

Good luck

Jill

I see that most folk seem to be on AI's and I'm assuming it's either 1) Because of age / menopausal status or 2) They blew through Tamoxifen first. 

I started Tamoxifen in December just after my 50th birthday and am strongly er/pr+. Just wondering - anyone out there had a good run with Tamoxifen?

Laurie x 

Laurie, this woman had a Tamoxifen run of 17 years with mets.

http://mbcn.org/get-involved/details/my-story-rita-arditti/

She was about 48 at the time she started taking it but had had her ovaries removed earlier.

Grigori, I have been on Femara 4 years now and also in remission 4 years.

It could have been six months, but I don't recall anymore. Will try to look up my records. I had 28 radiation zaps though in between to all affected sites despite being NED. That probably would justify not scanning sooner. 

Frapp, my doc did my first scan at six months then again nine months after that one and he plans another at twelve months after the last unles I feel some major new symptoms.  At the moment I'm doing okay without new symptoms so it will be January next year for mine.  I know some doc have a tendancy to want to scan early and a lot rely on the blood tests as well but mostly they rely on us knowing our bodies and how we feel.  If you think he is not giving the Femara long enough to work ask him why he feels it neccessary to scan so quickly. You can always tell him you would rather wait a little longer as well.

Love n hugs.  Chrissy

Frapp I'm taking this as being progression in the bones.....yes?  If it was, my understanding of the AI's and bones mets is that they will take up more of the nuclear isotope but that is normal as the bone takes a while to regrow and if it was only two months for you and if it was in the bone then the bone would not have had enough time to regenerate so showing a greater uptake.

However, good luck on this trial you are on and I hope that it works well for you.

Love n hugs.  Chrissy

Mods, once drawback to your now combining the "stickies" is that a reader can no longer determine with one glance if anything has been added to a particular thread within the group. Also, once a reader clicks on said thread of interest, she has to toggle through multiple pages from "first" to "last" to see if anything has been added.

Tina

Thanks, Susan. Now, if you would be so kind, you can explain to me how to add threads to "my favorites." I'm sure it's absurdly simple to create a list of "favorites," but I've tried to figure it out for the last five minutes and I have a low level of frustration tolerance!

Ms. Impatience

Susan,

 D'oh!

Thanks!

Any one taking Aromasin? I did Femara for 2 1/2 years then had progression to new bone and liver so did chemo for 14 months then stable and did Tamoxifen for 6+ months then progression now Aromasin. I have a fine raised rash on my torso, chest,back and it is itchy. I do calamine lotion and Claritin and at night benadryl. it gets worse 2 hours after taking Aromasin at bedtime then is some what better. Has anyone had a rash with this drug? I talked to my pharmacist and he said a skin rash with itching can ocurr as long as it is not hives. Showed it to my oncology nurse too. I have been on Aromasin for a month now and it started around day 8-10 of taking the drug. Any suggestions? Thanks Dawn. I also have bone and joint pain.

My onc just added Faslodex to Aromosin. I was on Femara for a little over 2 1/2 years but the tumor in my breast grew back and a spot on my rib started to light up so we moved to Aromasin in December. However, my markers keep rising ( mine are very accurate) but still show stability on scans so just yesterday, we decided to add Faslodex. We shall see how my markers do the next few months. I am also up for scans end of May.