New lesion on femur

[kklott01]

I recently had a bone scan where a metastatic lesion was identified on my right femur. Anyone have any recommendations on what, if anything, I should try to slow the developing lesion? My MD Anderson Oncologist says there aren't any actions that I can pursue? Has that been this forum's experience?

[Tall_Allen]

You have multiple bone metastases, so zapping a single one isn't going to provide any benefit. If it's painful, they can zap it.

[kklott01 in reply to Tall_Allen]

This is the first bone metastases after being diagnosis and radical prostatectomy 10 years ago. The other tumors are left supraclavicular and retroperitoneal. Was trying to understand if I can slow peneteation into the bone as I understand that that's not a good phenomenon in the overall cancer battle.

[Tall_Allen in reply to kklott01]

It may not be beneficial to zap it, but if safe, why not?

[SeosamhM]

Hey, kklott01. Some experience: I have a met on/in my left femur that was originally identified on diagnosis 7 years ago. I say "in" because it was clear that it penetrated the bone wall (out of all my tumors, that one is somehow the most visceral to me, even though others are more risky).

Out of our treatment choices, systemic chemotherapy would be a tough choice to support. Targeted radiation seems possible, but TA is right: Radiation is officially only used as pain remediation for individual bone tumors (although I would say a lot of RO offer this with a wink - I think that the RO community believes that radiotherapy has more direct and routine utility in cancer control).

While I had radiation to the "main event" tumors at C2 and L4 in my spine, the femur tumor was not radiated even though that hurt more than L4. Maybe it was the risk of pathological fracture (that ultimately DID happen in C2 for me...I'm still dealing with that years later) - this was certainly on my mind and so I didn't press the issue. The femurs are huge, load-bearing bones that are difficult to fix surgically. Thankfully, the femur tumor receded with docetaxel. It still persists on scans, but doesn't seem to be growing fast.

Moral of the story? I've lived with my penetrating femur tumor for seven years and it still isn't the focus of my treatment. But in your case it hasn't yet penetrated through the bone wall. An RO opinion wouldn't hurt.

[Jewelrylady]

I would ask your doctor why radiation wouldn’t be an option. My husband had PSMA scan that showed metastasis at C7, T 5, 10th rib, and L2. He just finished 5 SBRT treatments for 3 of the spots and will have prostate and lumbar SBRT in November. We got a second opinion and they also recommended radiation but IMRT instead of SBRT. My husband preferred the shorter treatment.