Liver Mets Swelling Pain - Help

I'm so sorry to hear that you are experiencing such pain...I do hope you find relief soon. Amazing you are at 4 years, I must admit that is encouraging to me.

I have liver mets only and don't have a great knowledge base as many others on bco do but pain is one thing I have had since diagnosis one year ago. I haven't been on a chemo drug for more than 3 cycles but I found pain relief on capecitabine for about a month but the pain returned with a vengeance. I was put on dexamethasone to fight inflammation, I became text book Cushing's syndrome and am currently weaning off the steroid; I'm now on eribulin. I reduced my pain med intake today and ill see again tomorrow. I'm hoping Eribulin may be the one to work for more than a couple of cycles. It is my understanding as the liver capsule stretches to accommodate tumour growth the pain intensifies but then subsides until further progression. I find doing deep breathing exercises (when I can) to stretch diaphragm helps in times when I feel like I can't breath

Liz,

You may want to post on and review several of the other areas on BCO --

There are sections for "how are people with liver mets doing" and also a section on Y90, etc. and other treatments for liver mets. These are very active threads with a TON of good info in them. They are all for Stage 4 patients.

I have liver mets only (so far as I know) discovered this past May on scans after a year of rising tumor markers when no mets could be found. Then -- bam -- there they were. I am currently on Ibrance and Faslodex after 13 years on letrozole (was originally diagnosed with mets in 2006 to a polyp on my cervix -- weird but true).

I have investigated (and used) interventional radiology to treat my mets, aside from the medicinal intervention. My largest liver met was 2 cm, and I had that removed by microwave ablation by an interventional radiologist. (If my scan next week doesn't show resolution of the other liver mets by Ibrance, I will be having more IR stuff done.) However, I had to seek this out myself as the MOs don't so much like to play well with others, I don't think. I did push my MO to bring my situation to the tumor board, which she did, and that's how I started to find out about interventional radiology procedures that might help. On the other boards listed above (especially the Y90 one) you will see that several BCO folks have tried various IR techniques, including Y90, microwave ablation, cryotherapy (which incidentally works very well with immunotherapy so perhaps a combo would work for you) and chemoembolization. Others have used more standard radiation techniques like SBRT to remove/resolve at least some of their liver mets.

If you are being seen at UNC, then you're at an excellent center. I would ask my MO if she could direct you to an interventional radiologist there, or at least bring your situation to the tumor board and see if these things are possibilities for you.

Bev