Living with Oligometastatic Cancer

Yes, I have oligometastatic cancer! Her2+ with one met in my femur. I was treated with Kadcyla, single mastectomy,autologous reconstruction, anastrazole,and radiation. I now have maintenance therapy of Herceptin, Perjeta and Anastrazole. I was diagnosed in 2019 and currently there is no evidence of disease.

thanks… When and how did they discover the bone met? And do they use any dna or cellular-level blood tests to see you you are doing, or just scans? btw Happy you are NEDs.

Jenny, A PET scan showed a probable met. They then did a biopsy of that tumor in my femur. It was the same her2 cancer found in my breast.

By the way, the bone met was found when I was first diagnosed.

Yes I was when diagnosed de novo MBC in 2015 one small area on right hip

This is so interesting. I was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer. I have spot on my femur and spot at T11, no organ involvement and lymph node involvement. I never heard the term oligometastatic cancer. I am learning and glad I found this site.

This is so interesting. I was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer. I have spot on my femur and spot at T11, no organ involvement and lymph node involvement. I never heard the term oligometastatic cancer. I am learning and glad I found this site.

Oligometastatic BC isn’t well understood — terms are not universally agreed upon — despite the utter simplicity of the category (sez I). And similarly there are not a lot of studies focussed on this arena, though there is increasingly more attention given. It’s hard to get a consensus across disciplines (for treatment) when IMHO a multi-modal (surgery, radiology, oncology) approach is what is required. I don’t know why I was so happy to come across the term, so early in my stage IV journey… was it the way the sounds roll over the tongue? Or that suddenly I was in a special club (whoo hoo) at the very moment that I was less than thrilled about being in the Stage IV club. Welcome to the club. Please share what you find. I recently got all my docs to talk and see if I couldn’t do stereotactic radiation (one-and done) on my 2 bone mets — in reality 1-2 sessions for my T3 and 4-5 sessions for my sacrum — but am currently stalled at the decision presented — namely that while this approach works well for lung mets, that breast cancer is able to be well controlled by Kisqali + AI (for example) and so radiation is considered ‘futile’ — that’s a medical term BTW. The radiologist would only proceed IF I were to first remove all of the lymph nodes on my right side, and then based on the analysis we’d proceed (NED then no need for RAD and evidence of cancer then likelihood there would still also be cancer in the bone mets.) I struggle with this as the last thing I want is to remove ALL my lymph nodes, not be able to garden (or have to paranoiacally gloved up) or risk bringing on lymphedema. Bone scan (2 days ago) showed the T3 fading and the sacrum stable… which I think means cancer still present but not increasing. And no new sites. Will have a deeper discussion with ONCO next week. At least the docs know I’m serious about wanting to try something different, and if that something comes across their desks they might, just might, think of me.

Hi Jenny- my doctor said same that oligometastatic is not well defined and at least in my case would not change treatment ... I have mets to bone (sacrum, L4,L5) and skull bone and pleura of lung, not actual lung. I had difficulty/pain with walking in September and diagnosed with mets in October. Received SBRT to sacrum which tremendously improved my pain and now I can walk well and am doing a supervised exercise program. I was told for the pleura SBRT would not make sense as I have multiple nodules. I started targeted meds (kisqali) in November and am anxious to see how these other mets are going respond systemic targeted therapy. The mets to skull was recently confirmed by MRI and I do have occasional localized pain and have asked to see if SBRT can help. My appointment is next wk. Anything that can shrink the tumor or slow its growth would be helpful. Wish you the best I your journey.

Hi Jenny , i have oligometastatic breast cancer triple positive with a single lesion/mets to the liver . I was originally dx as stage 2 but a breast MRI before start of treatment showed a possible liver mets Following six cycles of TCHP chemo I am currently NED as of most recent scans . I am now on phesgo injections every 3 weeks but seeking 2nd opinion for possible surgery as an alternative to being on the phesgo injections long term

I also am oligometastatic with one site: my T2 vertebrae. Found on initial staging bone scan. Biopsied by specialty radiology and found to be er/pr+ Her2 +. That was four years ago. All scans since then show no changes. Lost 30 lymph nodes with bilateral mastectomy. Overall, I’m doing very well and don’t miss my breasts.

Update as of Jan 13, 2024… met with radiologist, who was willing to proceed with stereotactic radiation to T3 and sacrum — but only if we removed all the lymph node on my right side first _ which I am reluctant to do — met with Onco Dr today and it is clear that I would STILL be on Kisqali/letrozole even IF we irradiated the bone mets… The good news (for me) is that after all of that, I now have a connection with the radiologist, and a better understanding of what would be entailed… a better understanding of why it’s easier to remove all the lymph nodes, rather than a select few… and I can put this discussion to rest. My mets are stable, cancer is either dead or dormant. No evidence of ACTIVE disease. NED-adjacent. The plan moving forward is to reduce my Kisqali from 600 to 400 mg — which should give me improved quality of life (fatique, skin + hair, nausea for those times I fail to eat on a full stomach (reduced anxiety over achieving this) — and quality of life is what I was looking for — despite, dream on, daring to hope I could irradiate my mets and move on.

I am oligometastatic…..spread to my lungs. I was initially diagnosed 10-31-2016 with ER/PR + HER 2- breast cancer. I did chemo, radiation and Tamoxifen. In March of 2023 my routine breast MRI picked up the incidental finding of lesion in the lung area, so CT scan then PET scan was ordered, biopsy and I did a lunge wedge resection in June of 2023. The cancer returned to the lung not long after this surgery so I again had a lung wedge resection 9-11-2024. It came back again. After the first lung wedge resection for treatment I did letrozole alone (my choice, they wanted to put me on Kisqali too and I wanted to see if letrozole alone would do the trick). Then I was placed on Kisqali along with the letrozole, Kisqali too toxic at full strength and even when they reduced the dose. I also replaced the letrozole with Fulvestrant shots. Then I tried Verzenio, again full dose too toxic so lowered the dose. My PET scan from this past December showed progression so now I just started Truqap and I’m still on Fulvestrant. I hope the Truqap works for this.

Many people in this community are navigating oligometastatic cancer, and each person's experience with the location and number of sites can vary. It sounds like you're looking to connect with others who have a similar diagnosis - sharing experiences and learning from one another can be really valuable during this journey.