• Registered: Sat, 09 Jan 2010
  • Posts: 42

Topic: BONE METS

Hi All,
Just putting out a new thread asking if anyone else has bone mets from cholangio? And if anyone is getting treatment for them? Yes, we do know about the bisphosphonates such as Zometa.
Thanks for any ideas or stories you have out there,
jackie

  • From: Pittsburgh, PA
  • Registered: Mon, 29 Dec 2008
  • Posts: 25

Re: BONE METS

My mom had mets to the bones from cholangio.  It seemed to be stopped and treated easily with radiation. She had very mild side effects, if any, from the treatment.

  • Gavin
  • Gavin
  • Moderator
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  • From: Scotland - Dundee
  • Registered: Tue, 23 Sep 2008
  • Posts: 4,832

Re: BONE METS

Hi Jackie,

My dad never suffered from bone mets so I can't help you personally, but there are quite a few posts on the site dicsussing this topic and I am sure that using the search function will help you here.

Best wishes,

Gavin

  • From: Kalmar, Sweden
  • Registered: Sun, 20 May 2007
  • Posts: 1,951

Re: BONE METS

Jackie,
JeffG had bone mets and like hopeandgrace's mom they seemed to respond well to radiation (if I remember that correctly). Does anyone else remember for sure?

Kris

Cancer is a word, not a sentence.

36 year old patient with buckets of hope
  • Registered: Sat, 09 Jan 2010
  • Posts: 42

Re: BONE METS

Yes, we understand that with a limited number of mets in a bone, radiation and super-radiation techniques like cyber-knife can be applied.
Unfortunately, my mom has mets throughout her skeleton- 100's. That is what they found when she was first diagnosed in Late Oct 2009. (Never any mets anywhere else except a small tumor on the common bile duct)
Has anyone else experienced this? Any treatments???
So far, she got no results from 5 sets of gemcitabine, then got stabilization from 6 sets of gem-ciis, now on second round of gem-cis, but no more options if this stops working...
Thanks all!!!!!!!!

  • Registered: Sat, 22 May 2010
  • Posts: 16

Re: BONE METS

Hi Jackie,

My mom has, besides the primary tumor in bile duct, what they called "lesions" that are suspicious of cancer in both her liver and hip bone.  After 3 cycles of gemzar/cisplatin combo, her latest MRI showed her primary tumor has shrunk slightly and the "lesions" appear the same.  They recommended keeping with gem/cis treatment for 5 more cycles, and then reevaluating at that point. 

No doctor has mentioned radiation for the met on hip bone.  Is that something I should ask about?  Maybe they just want to get the chemo in first.   

Best wishes to you, and everyone on this site in finding success!

  • Gavin
  • Gavin
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  • From: Scotland - Dundee
  • Registered: Tue, 23 Sep 2008
  • Posts: 4,832

Re: BONE METS

Hi Kris,

Yes you are right about Jeff having bone mets. And I remember him telling me that he underwent a procedure called verteplasty as well at some point for them. At least I think it was called verteplasty.

Best wishes,

Gavin

  • Registered: Sat, 09 Jan 2010
  • Posts: 42

Re: BONE METS

Lance,
Radiation and Hyper-radiation like cyberknife (lots of posts on this board on that) are only for localized tumors. I do not know about "lesions".
She did have a series of local radiation treatments to a painful site on her neck before she started the chemo-- there were tumors at this site that were impinging on the nerves. It helped a bit. But they have said that was her only window of opportunity for such "palliative" radiation.
My mom is about to finish her second (6 week) round of gem-cis--- the first round of 6 weeks showed "stabilization"- no growth or multiplication of tumors. [Gemzar alone for 5 weeks did nothing to stop the tumors growth and multiplaication, btw.] But she has 100's throughout her skeleton (known since her diagnosis in Oct 2009), so she does not qualify for any localized treatments of any kind. She does have one very small tumor in the common bile duct. It would be easy for them to remove this surgically if she did not have all the mets in her bones, or if she had only a few other mets in any other locations. She does not have any tumors anywhere else.
She will have a scan in the next week or two, to see if the gem-cis is still stabilizing the cancer. If not, we are out of options, I am afraid.
So it seems that you are following the current "gold standard" for this type of cancer with good results.
I would check in on this site about cyberknife and such after you find out more from the docs about what these skeletal "lesions" are.
Best of luck!!

I will do a search on VERTEBLASTY, Gavin- thanks!