Hi Malwicker, I'm in somewhat of a similar situation as you, except for the exposed bone in the Jaw. I've had 3 full-blown recurrences, only mine have all been in the liver.* Donfoo pretty much nailed it about the nature of the treatments once you go from Stage IV to Stage IVc. as the published survival rate for us, 5 years after confirmed dx of "Distant" metastases, is Zero and all treatment is palliative. Intended to postpone the inevitable as much as possible while keeping the patient as comfortable as is achievable considering the patient's condition.

* The last batch of tumors in my liver seem to have been defeated by the packing of the arteries in my liver with radioactive beads, but a lymph node between the liver and the stomach showed up "hot" at the same time the third batch of tumors appeared, and today I'll go for my 5th (of 15 planned) radiation treatment for that node (which had grown from 0.2 cm to 4 cm.)

In my own case, it's looking pretty good that I'll make it beyond 5 years (my confirmed dx was Feb, '12, so that's less than 2 years away and I am in good health, (other than "that.")

Since your mets are in the lungs (the most common location, I've read) I can't offer much about your situation, but I'll tell you what worked for me:

First set, I had a cocktail of Carbo-platin and Taxol (the Taxol was changed to Taxetere when I started to lose more hearing) and tx lasted from 2/12 to 6/12, and no tumors remained.

Second set showed up 90 days later on first Post Tx PET (PTP). This time, we treated it with Xeloda, a PILL form of 5 FU. Pills taken 2x daily w/food. Tumors gone early 3/13, back again 90 days later at first PTP. We tried Xeloda again in mid 7/15, but on Oct 1st, the PET showed that the tumors were still all there and had grown, and a new set had arrived (along with the single lymph node I'm treating now)

This time, we tried a technique that has shown great success treating liver cancer. A tube is inserted into the Femoral Artery and run up into the liver. On the way, arteries that branch off to feed other organs are blocked and the internal volumes of the two liver lobes are measured. Two weeks later, the right lobe is packed, and two weeks after that, the left lobe is packed.

That's it, no chemo involved. The beads are about the 1/3 the diameter of a human hair and a tiny chunk of Yttrium-90, a highly radioactive isotope (beta emitter) and once inside, they just sit and zap the tumors. Very effective.

And now with them in hand, we're going after the 4 cm lymph node. My MO thinks that we can do this easily, and that I could have as much as several months before having to deal with it again.

That's all I've got, I hope it helps!

Bart