Hello everyone,
My husband (52 now) was diagnosed with colon cancer metastasized to the bone last April. He'd had back pain for a while but was putting it on aging/arthritis, even though he's very active physically. Finally it got so bad that he got checked and what we thought was a pinched nerve turned out to be an adenocarcinoma in his L4 vertebrae. The hunt was on for finding the primary; markers suggested a colorectal origin. A PET scan revealed activity in the small intestine, and since he had Krohn's disease as a young adult it made sense. The inflamed section was resected and sent for pathology but no cancer was found. He had radiation (5 days, 3 weeks) for the metastasis, followed by 6 cycles of adjuvant Xelox, which resulted in terrible hand and feet neuropathy (he finished the treatment mid October but is still in a lot of pain).
Then in December he started having back pain again (it had eased after the radiation). An MRI came back inconclusive so his oncologist prescribed another PET, which showed that the L4 tumor was still active, and identified a new mass (about 5cm) in his left adrenal gland. Biopsy confirmed the colorectal origin. Nothing else on the PET. He traveled to a larger hospital (OHSU, Oregon) and received 3 Stereostatic Body radiation Therapy (SBRT) treatments for the L4 met. His oncologist told us that the adrenal met could be resected, but he would rather leave it in place for now as a gauge of the efficacy of chemo; Bret starts Folfiri/Avastin on Friday. We don't have the detailed genetic pannel in hand (will have on Friday) but we're told that he's MSS (so no immunotherapy) and KRAS-mutated.
I'm not sure what I expect from this forum, but I can't seem to find anyone with a similar pattern as my husband's. It seems that both bones and adrenal gland are relatively uncommon met sites, especially when everything else (lungs, liver, lymph nodes) appears clear. Any feedback (also on Folfiri side effects, especially in terms of neuropathy) very much appreciated!