At What Stage in Treatment Do Tumor Flares Happen

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GoldenGirls
GoldenGirls Member Posts: 608
edited April 2017 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

I have been reading information to my mother about different treatments and side effects to help prepare her for her first scans since starting treatment next week. We keep coming across the term "tumor flare" and are wondering at what stage in a treatment this is most likely to happen. She feels her pain is progression though the definitions for tumor flares we have come across sound much like what she is experiencing. Would this have happened at the start of treament or could it happen months on? She's been on Aromasin since February.

Thx

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  • SPAMgirl
    SPAMgirl Member Posts: 1,470
    edited July 2013

    A tumor flare happens soon after you start a new treatment. Extra bone pain could be an example of the medicine working. If your onc runs Tumor Markers on you at the end of every cycle, your marker level will shoot up because you have dead cells and cancer cells in your blood stream together.

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  • GoldenGirls
    GoldenGirls Member Posts: 608
    edited July 2013

    Thank you, Spamgirl. She is 5 months into treatment with Aromasin and monthly Aredia so I guess tumor flare is unlikely. She's been feeling perfectly fine and pain-free all along and then the morning after her Aredia infusion she woke up with pain and fever that has stuck around for the past 10 or so days. The fevers have stopped and the pain is managed with Aleve, but it's not completely resolved. Already trying to arm ourselves with information on other possible treatment options should this be progression, but wondered about tumor flares. Thanks again!

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  • justjudie
    justjudie Member Posts: 3,397
    edited July 2013

    Hi 6canadagirl   Tumor flares sound very negative when they actually are probably a pretty good thing!  The more cancer we kill the better off we are.  Hope your mom does fine.

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  • ysw
    ysw Member Posts: 29
    edited July 2013

    I think same is the case for my mother- she has been on hormonal treatment and zolendronic acid since last 5 months, her troubling symptoms have come down. No pain, no fever, except for mild-medium burning urine sensation, feeling thirsty and hot flashes (Frequency has come down). But we now have her Calcium level 11.2 and CA 15-3 162. It was 172 in Feb, then 93 in May and now 162. I am not sure what to read from this. She is now on IV fluid to excrete excess calcium. 

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  • dbla
    dbla Member Posts: 706
    edited July 2013

    Going through the exact same thing! Started Tamoxifen after Abraxane and Xeloda failed (a year on each- can't complain) and the last two days my ribs are killing me! I was actually googling "tumor flare" and the link sent me to your post! Tell your Mom I hope we are both experiencing fierce flares that will burn the crap out of the cancer!

    Hugs,

    Donna

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  • ysw
    ysw Member Posts: 29
    edited July 2013

    Has anyone experienced tumor flare after 6-8 weeks? 

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  • Micmel
    Micmel Member Posts: 9,450
    edited March 2017

    I am convinced I have tumor flare some weeks during ibrance or anastrzole. Some weeks no pain at all others it's like a feeling of tiny bugs biting my bones and every once in a while it will feel more painful for a split second or two and them calm back down again. Then tgecycle begins all over again. If I wake up and feel and pain in my pelvis I know it's going to be tumor flare day. Just had all blood work done and tumor markers are plummeting, so I just can't figure out of this is good pain or bad pain. In my past dealing with chemo working. It meant good things. But any little twinge or pain I panic! Ugh!!! ~M~

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  • JFL
    JFL Member Posts: 1,947
    edited March 2017

    I had tumor flare for about 3 months on Aromasin/Faslodex. I started out in VERY dire shape at diagnosis, though, with uncontrollable hypercalcemia due to extensive, wide-spread, excruciatingly painful bone mets as well as a liver full of tumors. There was a lot of work to be done. And, I was going from pregnant with super-high hormone levels to ovary free, on aromasin and faslodex, overnight. On my current chemo, which I have been on for over a year, I have had liver pain (from dying mets) the entire time, which cycles up and down with my Xeloda on/off schedule. Again, my liver was in bad shape when I started following an explosion of liver mets taking over more than half of my liver. Neither are typical. It may be that my mets are super aggressive - they explode and grow fast, and then crash and burn and die fast.

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  • ShetlandPony
    ShetlandPony Member Posts: 4,924
    edited April 2017

    JFL, that is interesting that you had three months of tumor flare on Aromasin & Faslodex. Did that flare include both pain and higher tumor markers? I have just completed two months on Afinitor & Faslodex, and am nervous because of liver aches and rising TMs. I did have liver twinges in the past as Taxol was shrinking the tumors, but in that case my TMs were going down. I wish I had kept a diary to see if the aches correspond to Faslodex cycles. When my onc pressed on my liver right before my shots this week, it did not hurt. But a few days after my shots, pressing hurts. Could that be a good sign? Grasping at any hope I can, here.

    Micmel, if your markers are plummeting, I'd guess the pain is from healing.

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  • JFL
    JFL Member Posts: 1,947
    edited April 2017

    Shetland, I did have liver pain for those first few months on Faslodex/Aromasin (which I didn't have at time of dx) but my tumor markers went down. When I progressed in my liver, I had pain as well but also a sensation of my liver feeling bigger, like it was taking up more room in my belly and I started hunching over slightly as a result when walking around (I didn't notice until a friend pointed it out). I recall hearing about others whose tumor markers rose before they fell on hormone therapy. That happened to me on Xeloda but not Faslodex/Aromasin. I hope it is flare you are experiencing. Wondering and worrying really sucks.

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  • ShetlandPony
    ShetlandPony Member Posts: 4,924
    edited April 2017

    Thanks, JFL. My onc is "cautiously optimistic" and says let's see what the next scan says.

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  • PeacockGirl
    PeacockGirl Member Posts: 162
    edited April 2017

    does anyone experience this 'tumor flare' in their lymph nodes? My stage IV TNBC is confined to my nodes right now and they HURT! Especially the ones in my gut, which manifest as horrible unrelenting back ache. I'm on a pembro Immuno trial with concurrent xeloda and what appears to be happening is: nodes flare and hurt, nodes go down in inflammation and pain but remain like little rocks in my body.

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