So how did it all happen?

Here’s how I found out I had secondary breast cancer.

I developed backache and a sore right hip in mid-March while I was on my first ever overseas cycling trip, in Mallorca. The week-long trip was the first proper phase of the huge amount of training I was planning to do over the following few months that was to have culminated in a long-distance, three-day charity bike ride in France in July.

Initially I put the pain down to a mix of factors. For starters, while I’d done plenty of indoor training, I hadn’t ridden much at all outside or for any distance over the winter, and here I was doing back-to-back 50-75 mile rides involving quite a few hills. Also, I wasn’t using my own bike. While the rental bike was far better than mine and I loved it, I figured I was probably riding in a different position and that that was part of the problem. I hoped I’d just strained my back and hip and that it would soon get better. Interestingly – and fortunately – while the pain was at times quite bad, there was no pain at all when I was on the bike and cycling.

The pain persisted when I got back to London, although it would come and go. The most common place to which breast cancer metastasises or spreads is the bones and I knew backache was a potential symptom of it having spread to the spine. The pain was worse at night and when I was lying down. I did some reading and discovered that these too were signs of “bone mets” in the spine.

I very rarely get backache of any kind. Pretty quickly therefore, I decided to contact the consultant oncologist who treated me for primary breast cancer in the summer of 2015 and ask her advice, hoping all the while that it was just a sprain and that it would go away soon.

That was in late March. The consultant said it made sense to investigate further, so I had some blood tests done the following week.

The following weekend, I held a games afternoon at home to raise funds for the charity I was going to be doing for the bike ride in France in July. Other than the intermittent back ache and the periodic hip pain (the latter had in fact almost gone by then), I felt as fit as a fiddle. This fundraiser had been planned for ages and, at that point, while I was worried, I was still hoping the remaining pain would disappear with time.

That hope all but disappeared when the consultant subsequently called to say some of the blood results “weren’t entirely normal”. It made sense to follow up, she said, and a PET CT scan was being arranged for the following week. The writing was on the wall.

Despite this big shadow hanging over us, my husband and I managed to have a lovely Easter. The pain in my right hip had gone away completely at this point. As for the pain in my back, it sometimes disappeared for days at at a time, it always came back.

In the now forlorn hope that I would still be doing the various cycling events I had planned for the summer – or perhaps it was just to make myself feel better – I went out training on three of the four days of the Easter weekend. I even set myself a new speed record, reaching just over 40mph on a descent in Surrey.

My husband came with me on two of the rides. We don’t usually ride together but I think we were both aware that our lives were about to undergo a massive change and wanted to enjoy each other’s company while things were still relatively normal.

I had an appointment with the consultant the day after the Easter weekend, on 23 April. This was a couple of days before I had the PET CT scan and it was to have been my regular annual review with her. The consultant knows from having treated me before that I like facts and straight talking. So when I asked what she thought the problem was, she told me that, going by the blood test results, she strongly suspected that the breast cancer I’d been treated for more than three years earlier had spread to my bones and infiltrated my bone marrow. We even talked through potential treatment plans.

Among other things, the level of a specific breast cancer marker (CA 15-3) in my blood was very high. While this was “meaningless in itself”, I also had anaemia. The two things together clearly spelt trouble.

A week later, and the results of the PET CT scan confirmed what the consultant had predicted – “bone metastases and bone marrow relapse”. As well as there being cancer in my bone marrow and in three vertebrae, there is a lesion in my left-side rib area and there are “areas of less significant scattered bone disease”. As for my right hip, while there are no obvious signs of cancer in the hip itself, the pain may well be related in some way to the diagnosis. Then again, it may not be.

Thankfully our two young-adult sons were away at the time. We had time to digest the news ourselves and to plan a strategy for breaking it to them.

Since the PET CT scan, I’ve had numerous additional blood tests, a bone marrow biopsy, an MRI scan of my spine, and I’ve started treatment.

I have, of course, had to withdraw from the charity bike ride in France in July. More on that later.

Treatment – a reluctant trailblazer

“A trailblazer on a path you don’t want to be on.”

I paraphrase slightly, but that’s what the specialist breast cancer nurse at the hospital where I’m being treated said I was.

I have to say I was touched by the huge degree of empathy with which the nurse said it. This was just after the consultant told me that the treatment she was proposing for my secondary breast cancer was a combination of drugs that has just been made available under the NHS in England for women in my specific situation.

Given together, the drugs have been shown to improve what’s called “progression free survival”, ie the length of time patients live without their disease getting worse, and so delay the need for chemotherapy.

This latest development has been described as “fantastic news” for women such as me. The nurse was spot on with her description. I’m the first person at my stage of the disease and at my stage of treatment to have this therapy at the hospital trust where I’m being treated. I’m definitely grateful, but it’s a funny kind of gratefulness.

I started treatment on 22 May and I’m trying to focus more on the fact that the consultant is hoping for a “durable clinical response” than on the “significant, unavoidable or frequently occurring” risks of the treatment that are ticked on the consent form (see image).

The drugs are abemaciclib and fulvestrant – the brand names are Verzenios and Faslodex respectively for anyone who’s interested.

Abemaciclib is taken continuously in 28-day cycles as tablets – one tablet, twice a day, 12 hours apart. Fulvestrant is given as two injections – one in each buttock, not pleasant – each of which takes a couple of minutes to administer. You’re given it on Day 1 and Day 15 of Cycle 1, then on Day 1 of Cycle 2 and all future cycles – so that’s every two weeks for the first three doses, then once every four weeks.

You stay on these drugs for as long as they’re keeping the cancer in check and you can manage the side effects. Or, officially, for “as long as the patient is deriving clinical benefit from therapy or until unacceptable toxicity occurs”.

It could be a few months before we find out whether the drugs are working or not. If they’re not, you move straight away on to the next line of treatment. As for toxicity, the big worry with abemaciclib is diarrhoea. It’s a very common side effect and it can be so severe that the dose has to be reduced or a break in treatment is required. Three weeks in and I’m extremely relieved to report that I have got off very lightly indeed on this front. That may be partly explained by the fact that one of the side effects of the painkiller I’m on for the pain from the “bone mets” I have is constipation. I like to imagine the two drugs battling it out together inside me for supremacy.

You’re under close medical supervision, especially in the initial phase of treatment. You have blood tests every two weeks for the first two months, monthly for the following two months, and then as needed. You have scans every few months to check whether the drugs are working.

The cancer is in my bone marrow and bones, most significantly in my spine. Bone mets weakens your bones and puts you at risk of what are called “skeletal related events”. These include fracture, radiotherapy or surgery to the bone, and spinal cord compression or surgery to bone. To reduce the risk of these SREs happening, I’m back on the bone-strengthening drug, zoledronic acid or Zometa. I had that for a while after my active treatment for primary breast cancer ended; it was supposed to reduce the risk of it coming back. I have Zometa monthly too – via infusion, like chemo, on the same day I have the fulvestrant injections. The infusion itself takes 15 – 20 minutes. Zometa can also ease the pain that comes with bone mets. On the downside, as I mentioned when I started taking it before, it can also occasionally cause a very nasty condition called osteonecrosis of the jaw.

Fulvestrant is a hormonal therapy that aims to help shrink or slow the growth of metastatic breast cancer such as mine that feeds on oestrogen. Abemaciclib is what’s called “targeted therapy”, ie it’s a type of drug that targets specific characteristics of cancer cells, such as a protein that allows the cancer cells to grow in a rapid or abnormal way. Abemaciclib is one of a class of drugs called CDK4/6 inhibitors, which work by targeting two crucial cell division proteins, CDK4 and CDK6.

There’s a bit of a debate over whether CDK4/6 inhibitors are chemo or not. In the end, it seems it comes down to definitions.

This new combination treatment that I’m on hasn’t been in use long enough for it to be clear whether it also improves long-term survival, ie whether you live longer overall. In terms of quality of life, though, improvement in progression free survival is hugely important. The treatments don’t get any easier as your cancer gets worse. Not do the effects of the cancer itself, of course, so the longer it can be held in check, the better.

It’s very early days. Let’s hope I fare well on that trail I’m reluctantly blazing.

It’s back

This is the blog post I hoped I’d never write. A lot of people who aren’t yet aware of my situation will be shocked and upset by it. There are so many people I’d like to break the news to on an individual basis but that’s just not possible. Whoever you are, thank you for reading.

It’s back. I’ve been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. The primary breast cancer for which I was treated “with curative intent” in 2015/2016 has spread and turned up in my bones – most obviously in my spine* – and bone marrow.

The consultant oncologist who broke the news to me is the same doctor who treated me originally. She knew I knew this very well already but I guess she had no choice but to include it in the conversation; it was “treatable but not curable”.

So here we are, having recently started treatment following a diagnosis of secondary/advanced/metastatic/late stage/Stage IV breast cancer. Call it what you want, they all mean the same thing – a life-limiting illness with a very uncertain prognosis.

I was diagnosed formally on 30 April (though I knew it was coming) and I started treatment on 22 May. I’m on a new combination of powerful and aggressive drugs that are aimed at preventing the cancer from spreading any further for as long as possible. For some women, these drugs are game changers in terms of how long they keep the cancer under control. Like the consultant, we’re hoping they will result in a “durable clinical response” for me. We’re trying to be positive and to focus on the fact that I’m largely well at the moment and we hope treatment will keep me this way for a long time.

The good news is that “bone mets” from breast cancer can often be stabilised and managed for long periods of time, ie for a number of years or more. The fact that it’s also in the bone marrow complicates things. We can but see how it goes. The aim of treatment is to control the cancer, relieve symptoms such as pain, and reduce the risk of fracture – while at the same time trying to maintain a good quality of life for the patient.

It wasn’t inevitable, but anyone who follows this blog will know that I was at high risk of recurrence. Lord knows I wrote about it often enough. While I had in fact made peace with that, there’s very little I wouldn’t give for this not to have happened.

For a long time after finishing treatment for primary breast cancer, I lived in fear of it coming back. I worked very, very hard to get to a position where, while I thought about it often, I really no longer worried about it and just got on with living. Life was good; it was very good. I had conquered my fear and I was in a position of pragmatic acceptance that it might one day return. I’m really proud of myself for having got there. It wasn’t easy.

That mindset of acceptance is really helping me now. It’s a difficult time for us all but life goes on. We’ll aim to keep enjoying it and we’ll keep hoping for the best for as long as we can.

As always, writing helps. I’ve already got a few more posts in the pipeline – about my treatment, how I found out, how I’ve had to cancel big cycling plans I had for this year, etc. You know where to look if you want to read them. Wish me luck.

*As well as being in my bone marrow, the cancer is definitely in vertebrae T8, T9 and L4. There is also a lesion in my left-side rib area as well as “areas of less significant scattered bone disease”. My right hip hurts like hell sometimes but while I’m told there are no obvious signs of cancer there, it could well be related in some way to this new diagnosis – although, equally, it may not.

The details

I realise that up until now I’ve only written about my diagnosis. I haven’t yet written anything about the cancer itself, which means I’m not doing a very good job of keeping you updated. So here goes.

I have invasive breast cancer or, to give it its proper name, invasive ductal carcinoma. It’s Stage IIIa and Grade 3. In lay terms, that means it’s big and fast growing. I know that sounds bad but apparently it’s curable. It’s in the right breast and right axillary (armpit) lymph nodes, with no further spread detected. The cancer is also oestrogen receptor positive, which means it needs oestrogen to grow so I’ll take hormone therapy for years after surgery to try and stop it coming back or spreading.

We’re doing chemo first. Even if the chemo shrinks the tumour, however, a mastectomy is likely because of where the tumour is located in the breast. The main aim of the chemo is to stop any cancer cells that may be on the loose, as it were, on their way to a new site somewhere in the body but that can’t be detected using existing diagnostic tools.

The treatment plan as it stands after my first meeting with the oncologist two days ago is as follows.

We start with neoadjuvant (ie pre-operative) chemotherapy. This starts on August 19^th, the day after my younger son’s 15^th birthday and the day before my older son’s GCSE results. I’ll tell you afterwards whether my first chemo session was more or less stressful than GCSE results day! We’re currently looking at eight two-week cycles, which, assuming all goes well, takes us through to the end of November. The chemo drug regimen is known as “AC-T”; I’ll have four sessions of doxorubicin (trade name Adriamycin) and cyclophosphamide in combination then four sessions of paclitaxel (trade name Taxol). An MRI scan after the 2nd cycle will check to see whether the drugs are doing their job.

After the chemo, there’s a recovery period of around four weeks, after which they’ll do surgery: a mastectomy and total lymph node clearance. At the moment, the plan is to follow this with radiotherapy followed by five or ten (!) years of hormone therapy. So they’re throwing the works at it and we’re clearly in for the long haul.

At the moment, though, it’s one step at a time. I have an echocardiogram later this week, where they’ll check to see how my heart’s functioning. I won’t list all the potential side effects of the chemo drugs here but let’s hope I don’t get some of the more outlandish ones. It seems hair loss is more or less a given, although I may still give the “cold cap” treatment a go.

At this stage I haven’t asked for details of my prognosis. I guess it’s enough for the moment that it’s being treated “with curative intent”. In terms of the team that’s treating me, I know I’m in safe and expert hands.