Awaiting yet another pet scan after the last one showed progression, but new doctors thinks it might be RA so got her under RA treatment and wanted to wait until all inflammation is gone to re take pet scan after 6 months..that will be next month.
There are no symtoms of pain and the tumor markers have been at 8 and 7 since the beginning of breast cancer diagnosis except went up to 22 while taking chemotherapy then went back to 8 right afer. Alkaline phosphatase is normal at 56 and have been steady.. The blood test showed inflammation which has drastically gone down after RA treatment. One lytic lesion was biopsied at the beginning and found benign. Now there is another that lit up slighly at last pet scan 5 months ago and that is the concerning one. She is only taking hormonals.
I know no one knows for certain but the waiting is terrible. The doctor has given us some hope. Given the no symptoms and the tumor markers being normal and one lytic lesion previously found benign...what are the chances that this not metastatic? I know certain people show normal markers..but this was diagnosed over 2 years ago and still markers are normal and no pain where they think theres cancer. Only pain she has felt is in the areas of RA inflammation which is all gone now with RA treatment.
Just wanted to know your thoughts on this based on experience and medical knowledge.
Thank you.
Reply # - January 26, 2015, 11:12 AM
Hi mita,
Hi mita,
I think you answered the question yourself, no one knows until it does or doesn't happen. The unnerving wait in the meantime can be enough to stop attending to living your life. I've experienced/am experiencing it as a loved one but not as the person with/without cancer. I wish someone had an idea of how to help move through it. In the meantime hope prevails.
I'll ask a doc to comment.
Janine
Reply # - January 26, 2015, 12:43 PM
mita, I meant to paste this
mita, I meant to paste this info as well. From Dr. Creelan on the question of tumor markers, "Good to hear she is doing well. In oncology, the “proof is in the pudding”, meaning that physical exam, path results, and patient well-being usually trumps other findings. So this improvement in physical exam is encouraging.
Outside of clinical context, tumor markers are usually not particularly helpful, for several reasons. One reason is that they have high amont of “noise”, or day-to-day variability. A tiny change from 237 to 244 in this type of lab test is often meaningless, because of the standard error of the test. It is impossible to conclude anything from such a small difference." http://cancergrace.org/topic/tumor-markers
Reply # - January 26, 2015, 06:04 PM
I agree with the comments
I agree with the comments above. Tumor markers in breast cancer are notoriously unreliable. PET scans can show uptake in areas of inflammation that is not related to cancer. In the absence of new symptoms or issues, I think repeating the scan next month sounds reasonable.
Dr. Cianfrocca
Reply # - January 26, 2015, 07:43 PM
Thank you...but if they say
Thank you...but if they say "lytic lesion" could that be also from inflammation or is that something abnormal with the spine itself not having to do with inflammation?
Reply # - January 26, 2015, 08:28 PM
Hi mita,
Hi mita,
A lytic lesion that "slightly" lit up on the PET scan is a pretty ambiguous finding, one which could very easily NOT be cancer, and could represent inflammation or a degenerative condition. As Dr. West has said "it's very possible to have ambiguous lesions in the bone, and we often want to give the patient the benefit of the doubt and presume it's not a metastasis unless we see clearer evidence that it's cancer." - http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=7294.msg53628#msg53628
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - January 26, 2015, 08:46 PM
Thank you for your words..
Thank you for your words...they give me hope and less anxiety before the scan.
I will let you know the results.