MD Anderson Visit Update for Interventional Radiology Consult for Bone Fractures

[hopenowandtomorrow]

Hi Fellow MBC’ers: Here is my update from my IR consult with MD Anderson in Houston:

1. The IR Doctor trained & published with IR team in France where many of the research briefs I linked to (in a previous post on this community) from NIH originated.

2. I have a classic case of 2 fractures (vs 1) the anterior & superior bones that always occur on both sides of the circular bone in the pubic Ramus. This is common for someone who’s had MBC in the acetabular.

3. My bones in my Pubic Ramus are too small for screw placement (anterior bone is 6mm, superior is 10mm). Smallest screw is 5mm. It may not hold. He said if I had a larger frame, it would work.

4. After many MBC patients treated with bone cement on the pubic Ramus bones in France & the US, the long term results were not good due to the movement of those bones & the delicate nature of the procedure. Bone cement is not generally recommended for the pubic Ramus bones. However, he would have done IR at the original tumor at the top of the pelvic side acetabular originally & I would have walked on my own much sooner compared to the recovery time with SBRT. He said most people don’t ask for IR, they go straight to radiation.

5. MBC bones are very different. They are a combination of lytic (holes) & sclerotic (bone growth harder, brittle & irregular).

6. My bones are showing signs of healing.

7. Recommend waiting 3 months to see if pain diminishes.

8. If pain does not diminish, recommends CT-guided Cryoblation. Cool is less recovery time (1 day vs 3) than RF (heat) ablation (older technology). Killing the nerve gets you off of pain killers & associated side effects. The nerve will grow back in about a year.

Note: It takes about 4 weeks to get on the MD Anderson IR schedule.

Thought you’d want to hear about this option.

🙏❤️🙏

[blms]

This is GREAT info! Thank you so much as many of us will most likely be in this situation before we know it.!

[NPmary]

Thanks for sharing ❤🌺❤

[13plus]

Thanks so much for sharing these details . I fear I may end up with progression in this same area eventually so it’s great to have some more understanding of the possibilities. I did google IR as I wasn’t sure of the difference of that to regular radiation. Im still a bit confused. It seems more of a process to do some kind of treatment , vs a treatment in itself? So his comment “he would have done IR at the original tumor” means what? Cut off blood supply using IR, or using IR to target the bone directly with rads? I’m going by this IR description here

Text

[hopenowandtomorrow in reply to 13plus]

Interventional Radiology can do CT-guided bone cement to a cancer tumor that causes weakened & or fractured bones. The process of bone cement creates heat which can kill the cancer & stabilize the bone simultaneously. IR can also do CT-guided hot or cold ablation to nerve endings in the location where the pain is originating. In a prior post I listed many of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) medical abstracts on the results of these procedures. You may want to check them out.

IR procedures are outpatient & much quicker recovery time than surgery.

Radiation & IR are different.

I hope that helps!

❤️🙏❤️

[13plus in reply to hopenowandtomorrow]

Thank you! That’s very interesting and certainly helpful to know for options for the future!

[daniellebrooks13]

Hello HopeNow,

Thank you for the thorough summary. My question is about point 8 "The nerve will grow back in about a year." What percentage of certainty do the Docs have who predicted this? I question this because I've suffered nerve damage in my hand and arm where they didn't know how much the nerve would function again, and it never came back. Perhaps if they know it for sure, it may be because it's a different body part. I would doublecheck this point. All sounds good! Good luck!

[13plus in reply to daniellebrooks13]

I “think” it’s different result when it is manually killed with a treatment vs, damage naturally through trauma within the body itself

[hopenowandtomorrow]

They say that “killing” the nerve is very targeted &, if done correctly, will not affect any other area of the body.

[diamags]

Thank you! That is great info!

[LotusAFlower]

I hope this helps and brings you relief . Keep us posted and thank you for sharing valuable information. 🌻

[RLN-overcomer]

Greetings sister, and yesss warrior. Thank you for sharing . This information can help so many other sister/ warriors . I had no idea nerves can regrow after the treatment.🙃. Can this procedure be repeated when, and ,if the nerve regrows ??? I hope/pray you will have relief, and whole body healing ASAP. I send you virtual hugs😇🙏