Radiation treatment for bone metastisis

Hello,

I am a 44 year young male with stage IV RCC with mets in lungs, liver, pancreas and just discovered in the bone in my upper spine/neck. I have a very high pain threshold but the pain associated with the bone tumors is excruciating! I am under excellent care and have just begun a very technical high dose radiation treatment designed to destroy the bone mets and relieve the pain.Does anyone have any experience with this procedure? All signs with my treatment so far lead me to believe the outcome of the procedure has a very high success rate. If anyone can share any info such as; length or treatment (# of doses), center where procedure was performed, location of bone mets, size of mets, side effects, recovery time, and most importantly strength and mobility recovery I would so greatly appreciate it.

As far as the chemotherapy side of treatment is concerned; I am currently on my 5th line of defense having already taken or still undergoing treatment with sutent, torisel, xitininb, avastin as well as participation in a few clinical trials. I have taken the challenge of fighting this thing head on and I am physically and mentally still very strong, determined and I know I am winning my share of the battles along the way.

The recent challenge of the bone metastisis has been my toughest hurdle so far and I havent seen much written on this message board re: bone mets/treatments/success rates. If anyone can share any experience or insight I would greatly appreciate it and will be more than happy to reciprocate any way I can.

Thanks and my best wishes go out to anyone and everyone looking for the strength to fight this thing or helped a loved one fight this thing each and every day.

Ed

On 6/18/2009 Ed 88 wrote:

Hello,

I am a 44 year young male with stage IV RCC with mets in lungs, liver, pancreas and just discovered in the bone in my upper spine/neck. I have a very high pain threshold but the pain associated with the bone tumors is excruciating! I am under excellent care and have just begun a very technical high dose radiation treatment designed to destroy the bone mets and relieve the pain.Does anyone have any experience with this procedure? All signs with my treatment so far lead me to believe the outcome of the procedure has a very high success rate. If anyone can share any info such as; length or treatment (# of doses), center where procedure was performed, location of bone mets, size of mets, side effects, recovery time, and most importantly strength and mobility recovery I would so greatly appreciate it.

As far as the chemotherapy side of treatment is concerned; I am currently on my 5th line of defense having already taken or still undergoing treatment with sutent, torisel, xitininb, avastin as well as participation in a few clinical trials. I have taken the challenge of fighting this thing head on and I am physically and mentally still very strong, determined and I know I am winning my share of the battles along the way.

The recent challenge of the bone metastisis has been my toughest hurdle so far and I havent seen much written on this message board re: bone mets/treatments/success rates. If anyone can share any experience or insight I would greatly appreciate it and will be more than happy to reciprocate any way I can.

Thanks and my best wishes go out to anyone and everyone looking for the strength to fight this thing or helped a loved one fight this thing each and every day.

 

Ed

 

 

Hi Ed,

I am glad you are under an excellent care, it is nowaday not easy to find a good care for a stage4 met cancer patient as most doctors are giving up on you once one labelled you as a **stage 4 met** patient.

Anyway, my mom had 2 very high dose of Radiation Theraphy (target certain spine area too) to reduce this Bone pain. She immediately had the cranker sore mouth badly that all her appetite disappeared. She stopped eating foods but fruits. We got to feed her with chowder food type instead. She started loosing weight. She then next had a pneumonia contracted badly due to a very low immune system kicked in during winter time that 1st hospital doctor did not know how to treat her - instead sending her to hospice, and claimed cancer caused!!! She also contracted the Congestive Heart Failure due to pleural effusion excess... Drs often prescribed her with lasix and she ended up lacking of main ion electrolytes, She also experienced the high level of fatigue, lack of breathy every day hence.

After pneumonia showdown, she started having Shingles virus attack half of her body so she could not stand up much anymore.  We wished back then we were proactive and let my mom had feeding tube prior those radiation theraphy sessions.  With the radiation theraphy it relieved her bone pain but caused too many other side effects so just be prepared.

Regards,

Victoria

hi ED I have avanced prostate cancer and I had a  bone mets/treatments/success back in 2007  but it was with Alternative

Hi Ed. My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 RCC in May of 2008.  He had one bone met back then. He had a metal rod put in his arm as the tumor had been eating away at the bone and it was very fragile. He had 10 rounds of radiation to his arm. This helped to shrink the tumor and relieve the pain. As you know, the pain is awful. He went through 10 more rounds of radiation about a month later. This past April he began having pain and discomfort in the same arm, the result being a broken elbow. After x-rays, CAT scans and PET scans, it was found that there were more bone metastisis. A new one in the same arm, one on his skull, one on his spine and one in the pelvic area.  More surgery was done on the arm. We are still waiting for that to heal so he can have radiation again. He was also put on Sutent. He is on his 2nd 4 week phase. I believe the radiation helps, but only with the pain. It doesn't stop the cancer from growing. He had no side effects with the treatments, and had relief from the pain in about 2 weeks. I am hoping he can get radiation on his arm soon.  Am anxious to learn if the Sutent is working. Won't find out until September.  We go to the Regional Cancer Center in the city were we live. They are wonderful there. I don't know if I've answered any questions for you, but definitly give the radiation a try. Oh, something else. He gets an infusion of Zometa every 4 weeks. That is to strengthen his bones so they won't keep breaking. You may want to check into that if your bone mets continue. 

My best wishes and prayers to you Ed. Sounds like you are a fighter, and that is important in surviving this awful disease! Let me know how the radiation works for you.

Karen