My mum has breast cancer in the bones

Hi Louise B43 

I am sorry your mum has been diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to her bones. It must be very worrying for both of you. I am unclear whether she previously knew she had breast cancer or whether this is a completely new diagnosis of cancer for her. Unfortunately once breast cancer has spread into other parts of the body it is classed as incurable but there are generally treatments. You mention tablets. If she has oestrogen positive cancer (the most common type of breast cancer), she will have tablets that block the oestrogen so it doesn’t ‘feed’ her cancer. The oncologist may also be able to prescribe other targeted treatments. Plenty of people survive well with secondary breast cancer so I hope things will feel more under control soon. Please ask her to mention the pain as there will be things they can do tor that too. 

Your had originally posted in the bone cancer forum. Your post was moved across to the Secondary breast cancer forum because breast cancer that has spread to the bones is completely different pathologically to cancer that starts in the bones and is therefore treated with different drugs. People on this forum and on our main Breast cancer forum will be the people who have experience of the drugs your mum might be offered. When you know more you might want to post on either of these forums. The breast cancer forum is much busier than the secondary one  

I am one of the Community Champions on the various breast cancer forums. I have been living with metastatic breast cancer since 2022. For many of us it’s a chronic condition rather than an immediate threat to life. I wish you and your mum well. 

I have secondary breast cancer with mets to my bones. I am taking letrozole, ribociclib for the cancer and injections of denosumab to strengthen the bones. I was diagnosed at the end of January. My last scan showed that the cancer had stabilised and hopefully it will continue into the next one, due in a couple of weeks. My side effects are nausea and fatigue, aching knees and fingers and thinning of my hair. Everyone is different but hopefully your mum will respond well to treatment. As you know, once the cancer has spread, it is incurable but she should still be able to enjoy life. I am. 

Hello I'm sorry to hear your news it's hard for anyone I can imagine and yeah we are making everyone moment and enjoying life together she has her ups and downs as we all do she has a letter through explaining about the cancer and she has a positive 3+ so weds not sure if she has stage 3 now if it has progressed it's not easy and I don't understand these things it's hard to understand everything coming at us but she is on tablets which is supposed to help her but she says they don't do alot for her and it's nice to get messages to talk about this and get it out instead of bottling it up I haven't cried yet and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing but I guess we all take it differently thanks so much for your message so appreciated 

Hi Louise B43 

Our information on secondary breast cancer might help you and your mother to understand this a bit more. The positive 3+ might be to do with how strongly it has oestrogen receptors.

www.macmillan.org.uk/.../breast-cancer-secondary