Bone metastases and treatment - 1289453

mallory29
Posts:1

Hello,
Less than a year ago, I was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma. I am in my early 40s and a never-smoker. I had one primary tumor in my lung and a large tumor in my hipbone, the pain of which led to my cancer diagnosis. Five months after treating the hipbone tumor, a previously undetected tumor began bothering me elsewhere in my hipbone and was also radiated. I've had some residual pain since then at both sites. I recently learned that there is a spot on two of my vertebrae that was identified at my initial diagnosis almost a year ago and grew between my last two scans. The oncologist told me she wasn't going to do anything since it "wasn't bothering" me. I actually now suspect that what I was reporting as residual pain from the previous tumors was from the new spot, but I was only recently made aware of it. Shortly thereafter, the pain increased, I developed excruciating back pain and couldn't bend. Now, I've done radiation but am told to expect that it will likely only reduce my pain level 50-75%. I guess I'm wondering what the rationale was for leaving the spot, allowing it to grow to the point that it caused me so much pain that I may now have to deal with long term, as well as increase risk for fracture. I plan on talking to the doctor about it at my next appointment but am wondering what others think. Thanks so much.

Forums

JimC
Posts: 2753

Hi mallory29,

Welcome to GRACE. I'm sorry to hear that these bone metastases are causing you such great pain. In general, with stage IV lung cancer metastases are aren't treated with local therapy such as radiation or surgery except to palliate symptoms such as pain or interference with a vital body structure.

In your case, although the spine mets did not cause pain for quite a while or may have caused pain not easily attributed to the stable metastases, the sudden growth may have caught your oncologist by surprise. When progression is that rapid, I'm sorry to say that there probably wasn't much else that could have been done.

I hope that you find significant reduction in your pain.

JimC
Forum moderator