My wife has stage IV breast cancer.

It's difficult to comment on treatment options without knowing her type of BC and if it reacts to hormones, HER2 status, etc. but there are many women here who live several years with bone and liver mets. Don't lose hope.

Ask them about other interventions for her liver, besides chemotherapy. Make sure you are very clear as to why they are holding off on chemotherapy - what about her condition is not stable enough for chemo?

To tell you more about treatments, it would be helpful to have more information about her pathology. Is she estrogen receptor positive? Is she HER2 positive? Has she had BRCA genetic testing?

When I was first diagnosed with Stage 4, my CAT scan lit up like a Christmas tree. I had a whole bunch of cancer. I am entering my sixth year of treatment, and feeling pretty darn good, actually.

Don't let go of hope, just go get some answers!

hi,

I cannot comment on the specific details of your wife, but can say it's worth a visit to Istanbul to a clinic, to learn about your options.. Health tourism is extremely advanced here, as you probably know. Hope she gets a proper treatment soon.

Blaine... HER 2 + 1 is considered HER 2 NEGATIV

BCHelpPlease, I was in really bad shape when diagnosed at 38 - could barely walk due to extensive bone mets throughout entire body and had a liver full of mets. My bone mets were very late stage at that point and were causing me extreme, uncontrollable hypercalcemia which is a bad prognostic indicator. My mets are very aggressive and grow very quickly. Two and a half years later, I am running, working full time and living a completely "normal" life. I have had two progressions where my liver mets grew quickly since diagnosis, but so far, each new treatment has worked. My bone mets have been stable since initial diagnosis and haven't progressed. Bone mets take 6 months - a year to heal but they can improve, slowly but surely. One benefit of aggressive, fast growing cancer is it usually responds the best to treatment and responds quickly. I hope your wife finds some medications that put the cancer in check for now. This is all very hard and scary but it can be manageable for a very long time.

Also, not sure if she is hormone (estrogen receptor and/or progesterone receptor) positive but if so, she may be able to start hormone therapy if not well enough to do chemo. Young women tend to have high estrogen levels so hormone therapy can be very effective.