Topic: Bone mets 3 yeas...now in the Liver - please help me.

Elaine, was that for bone mets or liver mets?

  I have bone mets, liver and lung.  I did 22 treatments of abraxane which is the same family as taxol, taxotere and I don't know if I should be telling you this, but the SEs for me were just too bad to continue with even though my onco wanted to continue and stay within that family. I think all the SEs are similar since they are in the same family.  It DID work for me....mets in my liver are much smaller now.  I know of many women who have been on Abraxane and coped just fine with it, but for me it was at the point where I knew I just did not want any more.  Everyone has SEs of some sort, but I had every single one and since I still want to work could not risk the neuropathy getting worse and it had started in my hands.  I made a trip to MD Anderson after I quit the abraxane and was on my break rom treatments and he agreed that I demonstrated acute toxicity to that particular chemo and should stay away from it.  I am now back on hormonal treatments and will not know if they are working or not until I have scans in Dec or January.  Knowing you have mets in your liver is a scary thing, but if they can just find something to control it, you can live with it.  The good news is that there are many treatments out there and if one doesn't work for you chances are something else will. 

I have had Liver met's now for 20 months I have had Taxol and Herceptin it worked for about 3 months But in the past 20 months I have tried lots of different drug combinations pill's I.V.  treatments some have not worked at all some have worked for a few months.  What you need to think about is that everyone is so very different and what works for one person will not work for another.  When I was diag. 20 months ago I was told that I had 4 months the second doc I went to did not want to treat I was told to go home and enjoy my family and kids.  When they did my liver biopsy I asked the doctor how many I had and he said to many to count.  

Don't think that liver met's are going to be the last straw because as long as you can keep them the same size or growing very slow it will be okay.  I know when they start to grow because I get a side ache like I have been running comes and goes or if I push right below my ribs it hurts more when they are growing like I have a bruise there or something. So then that prompt's us to get scans sooner and change medication.  I have been taking Ixadepilone now for 4.5 months for me it has been a hard drug due to body aches but it shrunk them in the first three months. The side ache's are starting to come back now I think it may not be working but we are going to do it until the end of December and then do another scan.  Odd enough with all that my liver function has not dropped I think the liver can handle a lot.  So just stay positive. As my doc tells me there are so many things to try and we will just keep working at it.    Stay off of the liver cancer web sites when I have gotten on there a lot of time it is very upsetting and in 20 months I have proved a lot of the time frames wrong don't live within a time frame. 

Sounds like you have been dealing with Cancer for a long time so you know how it goes don't let the liver scare more than anything else.

 Good Luck!

As others have said, everyone reacts/responds differently to chemo - some work and others don't.  The fact that you only have one lesion is good.  I had multiple lesions when diagnosed - too many for them to count.  They were gone after 6 A/C and 6 Taxol/Herceptin treatments.  My liver has been clear since March 08, though I developed new bone mets in my right hip socket. 

With only one lesion in your liver, there are other tx possibilities.  Theraspheres is one possibility.  Another could be chemoembolization.  Maybe some of the ladies that had these treatments will pipe in give you more info on those. 

On a good note, Taxol seems to work well on liver mets for a lot of people, so hopefully it will do the job for you.

I was on taxotere along with carboplatin, so I can't tell what gave me what side effects, but one of my chemo buddies has been on avastin and taxol for 18 months (she is triple negative), and she says it doesn't hit her that hard.  She has lost her tastebuds and gets fatigued, but otherwise tolerates well.  It has kept her NED, tho!  She had lung mets and they are resolved, but she continues with chemo because of her status of TN.  Best to you!!  lisa

Tania, remember the key words in your initial post, "my oncologist believes this will do the trick."  He is not saying that without having the experience and knowledge of patients who it has worked for.  Hang in.  Maryiz

I was already Stage 4 with liver mets with my first dx, but that wasn't confirmed until a year later.

Meanwhile, I had a double mast, A/C and Taxotere.  My ct scan then showed a 9cm liver tumor and numerous 2cm tumors throughout my liver.

I went on a clinical trial of Gemzar and Herceptin and 9 months later my lvier went into remission. I have continued with Herceptin and will be on it for life.  My liver has been in remission for over 5 years.

In 2004, RFA was only used for tumors 3cm and smaller if they were stable.  Otherwise, systemic chemo is necessary to keep new tumors from appearing.

Taxol and Gemzar can do a great job with the tumors.

Denise

I had only lung mets for the first three years of my Stage IV nightmare and now the lung mets are fairly dormant but I have had liver mets for 3 years.  Fortunately for me, while I have not found a drug to eliminate the liver lesions, I have been able to live pain-free with these liver mets for the entire 3 years.  So, don't despair yet... you may have a long reign with these f%%$kers without suffering from them.  Sadly, this journey is filled with successes and set backs... but just because you may have a set back, it does not mean that the next tx you try won't either obliterate the liver mets or at least tame them.  Good luck!!

Robin 

PS I did Taxol and Avastin for 5 months and while it really did not help me (other drugs have always worked better for me than chemo), other than losing my hair, I had absolutely no side effects from this treatment!! 

Girls, just found out where the liver tumour is, its Segment 4A. Anyone know anything about this area??

Tania,

Whenever I have progression in my liver leading to a change in treatments, neither my local treating onc or my out of town specialist seem to be that concerned with the location of the lesions within the liver.  I always scrutinize my scan reports and ask questions such as yours and my onc's have often told me that basically, they are concerned about the progression rather than all the facts about the tumors themselves.  So, I would not go insane trying to figure out what the ramifications are of the tumor's location.  Just my experience so far.

Robin 

Hi Tania -- I'm a big fan of Gemzar and Taxol.  I did Taxol Dec to April but the side effects were too hard on me -- neuopathy, falling down.  This doesn't mean it will happen to you though.  Switched to Gemzar in May.  I had 7 liver lesions in January, down to 1 little one this month.  Gemzar seems a bit slow going but it works.  Taxol and Gemzar sounds like a great combo.  It worked for my liver mets.