Treatment for mets to lung question.

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terrij152
terrij152 Member Posts: 530
edited March 2015 in Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned

This all started 2 years ago when I went to the ER with chest pain and they did a chest CT. They found two nodules then that haven't really grown all that much, 1-2 mm at most but October a new one popped up. This one has grown from 1.7 cm to almost 3 cm in 5 months. If it wasn't for me going to the ER 2 years ago we would have never found this. So my oncologist feels that it is metastatic breast cancer, however it was dumb luck that we found it. I had a biopsy last week which came back suspicious, but unable to confirm malignancy.

Just had blood work done to check my tumor markers and will be having a bone scan and MRI of the brain in a couple days. Next week I go back to see him and then we will decide if we need to do another biopsy or just treat it as cancer.

The weird thing is he's not recommending chemo at this time, just wants to switch me to Femara. What do you all think? He feels it is not aggressive and doesn't warrant chemo and doesn't want to do surgery since I have 4 nodules, 3 of which are stable.

Cautiously optimistic here!

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  • terrij152
    terrij152 Member Posts: 530
    edited March 2015

    anyone out there

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  • Luvmydobies
    Luvmydobies Member Posts: 766
    edited March 2015

    I don't have any personal experience but wanted to tell you I'm sorry about your issue and I'll pray for you. Was the pain from the nodules? Keep us posted please! XOXO!

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  • thinkpositive
    thinkpositive Member Posts: 12
    edited March 2015

    Hi Terri,

    I have been recently diagnosed with lung mets as well and my oncologist is recommending the same treatment... Switching to Femara.

    I think it is pretty much standard practice to try the hormonals first (less side effects) before moving on to chemo.

    Good luck to you!! Btw, I am from NJ too





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  • ShazzaKelly
    ShazzaKelly Member Posts: 909
    edited March 2015

    if your cancer is ER positive then yes Femera or another AI would probably be the next step. All over this site are women whose mets have been dealt to by Hormonals. It's often a very effective option.

    Good luck with your bone scan and MRI. Let us know how it goes

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  • terrij152
    terrij152 Member Posts: 530
    edited March 2015

    Thanks ShazzaKelly, so nervous about all of this. Since my biopsy was suspicious, but not conclusive I also need to decide if I want to have another biopsy done. Not sure about this yet, going to weigh the pros and cons of it.

    Thanks again!

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  • terrij152
    terrij152 Member Posts: 530
    edited March 2015

    Hi thinkpositive! Good luck to you as well!!

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  • Beatmon
    Beatmon Member Posts: 1,562
    edited March 2015

    Hi, Terrij: my lungs mets were also found accidentally....had a cat scan looking for infection in implant in rt. Breast. Instead, no pocket infection, but 50 different small nodules scattered through both lungs. I am her2 +, and started chemo ASAP.

    Maybe the hormonals will do the trick for you. Surgery will not be an option since you have more than one. Radiation not an option either. I hope you do well with it. I have read of other women that have successfully held it in check. I personally would opt for another biopsy if the nodules were big enough to hit. I had an excellent interventional radiologist do my biopsy, but all were small and hard to hit and withdraw. When he was finally successful, I said, it is Friday afternoon at 4 pm...do I need to walk this to the lab and put into the pathologist hand so it doesn't get lost

    Hopefully you will not have to have chemo at this time.

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  • terrij152
    terrij152 Member Posts: 530
    edited March 2015

    Hi Beatmon, right now my Oncologist is just going with Femara. My initial tumor was 96% ER positive. i'm on the fence about repeating the biopsy, hopefully we'll get some answers on Thursday.

    Thanks and be well!

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  • Nightnurse
    Nightnurse Member Posts: 86
    edited March 2015

    I have had a lung nodule that has been stable for a year. My last scans showed a second one in the other lung. I have new scans next week to see if there are any changes, which is 3 mos since the last scans. I have also had a chronic cough for last year and sometimes shortness of breath. Is this unusual?






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  • terrij152
    terrij152 Member Posts: 530
    edited March 2015

    Just saw my oncologist and bone scan and brain MRI were clean. Tumor markers were within normal range! We've decided to repeat the lung biopsy one more time to try to get a definitive answer. If the biopsy comes back malignant then we start treatment with Femara.

    So relieved!

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  • Beatmon
    Beatmon Member Posts: 1,562
    edited March 2015

    Good luck with your biopsy. Hope it goes smoothly and that the doc is able to give definitive treatment

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