Radiation To The Rib

My husband has decide to radiate to radiate his 6th right rib after seeing the specialist to the tumor does not continue to grow. Has anyone had radiation to the rib without much in the way of side effects. The specialist is saying 10 days of radiation with little to no side effects and then move on with life as he believes his may be more solitary, although he will have one more MRI on another questionable area. No Chemo, no zometa because his numbers are pretty insignificant. Watch carefully I assume every 3 months to see if solitary or moving into the MM stage.

So I am wondering what kind of experience with radiation anyone has had.

Thanks,
Gibby 56
Care giver of my beloved husband (53yrs old)
Plasmacytoma Dx October 07
MM Diagnosis: December 07
IgG Kappa MM Stage 1
IgG -1817
Beta B2-2.21.
Bone marrow biopsy-less than 1% Myeloma cells
Cytometry Analysis-IgG kappa plasma cell (CD 38 Bright)-.14%
WBC & RBC and rest of blood work seem fine.
Albumin 4.3
No protein in urine
Lytic Lesions- 1 on 6th rib right side—3.8 by 1.7 by 3.5 cm & 1 small partial (suspect for Plasmacytoma) on 1st mid rib left side
No chromosome 13 issues
PET Scan clean except the right lytic lesions showing no change
No treatment at this time.
Specialist recommends 10 days of radiation to rib to stop tumor progression.

 I cannot say do not have this as I has some radiation to my spine for pain. Is it a different type of cancer. My radiation oncologist told me the only reason for radiation is Pallative, meaning it helps stop pain but does not cure. Please ask your doctor again. I only had 10 days and it was to slow things down but he warned me this is not a cure. Soo ask again. I can only relate my own experience. MMS

On 2/29/2008 gibby56 wrote:

My husband has decide to radiate to radiate his 6th right rib after seeing the specialist to the tumor does not continue to grow. Has anyone had radiation to the rib without much in the way of side effects. The specialist is saying 10 days of radiation with little to no side effects and then move on with life as he believes his may be more solitary, although he will have one more MRI on another questionable area. No Chemo, no zometa because his numbers are pretty insignificant. Watch carefully I assume every 3 months to see if solitary or moving into the MM stage.

So I am wondering what kind of experience with radiation anyone has had.

Thanks,
Gibby 56
Care giver of my beloved husband (53yrs old)
Plasmacytoma Dx October 07
MM Diagnosis: December 07
IgG Kappa MM Stage 1
IgG -1817
Beta B2-2.21.
Bone marrow biopsy-less than 1% Myeloma cells
Cytometry Analysis-IgG kappa plasma cell (CD 38 Bright)-.14%
WBC & RBC and rest of blood work seem fine.
Albumin 4.3
No protein in urine
Lytic Lesions- 1 on 6th rib right side—3.8 by 1.7 by 3.5 cm & 1 small partial (suspect for Plasmacytoma) on 1st mid rib left side
No chromosome 13 issues
PET Scan clean except the right lytic lesions showing no change
No treatment at this time.
Specialist recommends 10 days of radiation to rib to stop tumor progression.

 

Hello Gibby56

I hesitate to talk about any of the radiation side  effects, because my radiation treatment was to my spine and not to my rib.  As a result, it was necessary to use three beams, focused on my spine, with associated scatter and exposure of tissues that were in the beam's paths.

 However, radiation is a well accepted and proven treatment for eliminating plasmacytomas.  They are very susceptible to it, so you can be reasonably sure that once treated the tumor will die.  Even better, the bone lesion it caused will begin to re-calcify as normal bone cells move back in.

 If your husband has a true plasmacytoma, with no other evidence of MM  despite thorough, exhaustive testing, he is one of the very lucky few.  I am one of them, and I count my blessings every day that because it was a solitary plasmacytoma, my chances of escaping multiple myeloma are probably better than 50% over the next ten years.

Please stay in  touch - it's very hard to find people with this diagnosis.

FrankH