Wednesday, February 28, 2007

starting chemo again!!

I saw the doctor today as started my new chemo. I'm going to do 2 rounds of CMF and then recheck the spots with a scan and see where my tumor markers are at. They are retesting my tumor markers today in case they went up since Jan 11th.

CMF is suppose to be an easy chemo. They call it "chemo -lite". I'm not sure if my hair will fall out. I would prefer any other side effect.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Facts about Lung Mets

If the cancer has traveled past the lymph nodes to another part of the body, a woman is said to have “distant metastasis”. The most common places that breast cancer spreads to are the bones, the liver, and the lungs. Many treatments are available for breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, but unfortunately once cancer has escaped from the breast and under arm lymph nodes, it is no longer curable. The goal of treatment in this case is to prevent the cancer from spreading further while at the same time minimizing side effects from the treatment.

Once breast cancer has spread beyond the breast and under arm lymph nodes, it is considered a “systemic” disease, meaning that it is necessary to treat the whole body rather than just one particular spot. This is because, once the cancer has traveled through the blood stream or lymphatic system, there are likely to be breast cancer cells in many different parts of the body, even if scans only show a few spots. For this reason, treatments that reach all parts of the body, such as chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, are used to treat metastatic breast cancer instead of treatments that just treat one part of the body, such as surgery. In general, surgery is not a part of the treatment of metastatic disease because treating only one area allows cancer to grow in other places. It is unfortunately not possible to remove all of the parts of the body where the cancer has spread because it is impossible to measure the individual cancer cells that will grow into a tumor without chemotherapy or hormonal treatment.
Breast cancer often responds to many different kinds of treatments, and most patients can live for months to several years with metastatic breast cancer.

Women with tumors that are not responsive to hormonal therapies or who have a large amount of disease in their bodies are usually treated with chemotherapy. There are many different types of chemotherapy that are used for breast cancer. In general, it is important to remember that the goal of treatment is to stop the cancer from growing while still allowing the patient to live a normal life. Many times the chemotherapy that is chosen in this setting is less toxic than the chemotherapy given after breast cancer surgery.
In recent years, there has been much interest in developing new types of medicines that kill breast cancer cells in new and different ways. Some of these medicines, such as trastuzumab (Herceptin), are designed to work against a specific type of breast cancer. Others, such as becizamab (Avastin), may work well in combination with chemotherapy to increase the likelihood that a treatment will stop the tumor from growing for a longer period of time.
In general, most women with metastatic breast cancer will be treated with several different types of therapy over the course of their disease. Over time, cancer cells become resistant to a treatment, and will begin to grow. When this happens, a change in treatment is needed. Unlike many other types of cancer, breast cancer cells can be controlled by many different types of chemotherapy, and women with metastatic breast cancer are living longer and longer.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The results are in....

I read the biopsy results on- line today. No surprises. The nodule that they biopsied is "POSITIVE FOR MALIGNANCY" (yes, the report had that in caps) Metastatic carcinoma consistent with ductal carcinoma primary.

Monday, February 19, 2007

President's Day biopsy

I had my lung biopsy today. We know the results will not be good, so this was kind of a formality. I was hoping to get this done quickly and enjoy my day off (one perk of working for the government), but it took all day! The actual procedure was fine. I had to wait more than one hour from the time we were told to arrive and I had to stay 4 hours after the brief procedure to make sure my lung did not collapse. The results should be back tomorrow. I couldn't get an appointment with my doctor until 2/28 so I will start chemo then.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

"I'm concerned about you"

I saw the doc today. I was sitting in the exam room waiting....the door flys open and he says "how are you" . I reply "fine" He says " I am concerned about you, your tumor markers are up" I reply " and my scan results didn't look good either" He was suprised that I had seen my scans. He admits that he had only seen them this morning! Earth to HealthPartners...get a clue....if cancer doesn't kill me you will. My tumor markers were up (for the first time ever) at my last chemo on 1/11 and no one mentioned it!

He says we should start chemo soon. I don't need a biopsy, but it's my option. I opt for the biopsy but I can't get in until 2/19. He thinks I should do CMF. I will have to do my own research and get back to him. Do you ever feel like you kow more than your doctors.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

was that a routine scan?

I went over to St. Paul today to pick up the disk with my scans on for my appointment with the surgeon next week. Tonight when I got home I put the disk in the computer. It's fun to go through all the slices of your body. After spending sometime going through the films, I looked at the reports - not good.

The report says "multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules new from both prior PET CT and prior CT scan of 2005 compatable with metastases" What! I thought this was a routine scan. Why hasn't anyone called me.

The report says collected 1/30 at 11:13am resulted 1/30 at 2:21 pm. Today is 2/9. Was someone going to tell me? I see the doc on 2/13 (routine follow - up) I wonder if I should call or email him before then.