A friend with breast cancer is losing her toenails.Is that a sign that it is metastasizing?

She was just diagnosed last week, and was told not to worry because the lump was so small that she will probably just have a lumpectomy and no chemo. This morning she woke up with blood running from her nipple [which I know is a sign that the cancer may be more advanced than first thought.] Then she admitted that she has lost 2 toenails and is working on the 3rd one. And all this has only been since last Thursday. This is my best friend's mom.My BF has 2 sisters,One died at 48 of matastatic cancer. The 2nd has extreamly advanced lung cancer,but has lived way beyond the 6 weeks she was given. The mother has had several skin cancers removed before her breast cancer diagnosis last week. My BF asked me to please research this issue. We do not intend to tell mom, but to discuss it with her Dr. My friend is completely involved with her mom's treatments. Thanks for your help
* calimagee *

She needs to see a specialist right away! Since the first doctor didn't do more tests right away I would question his ability to help her greatly at all. She should get blood tests and find out if she has a mineral deficiency, infection, virus or is not keeping vital vitamins in her system. Some people have to take vitamins because there body is just thinking the vitamin in food is waist or a condition in the intestines. The cancer her body will try and fight off in its own way and can change many things that use to function normally. She may have a few different conditions and not realize they can lead to more problems and conditions. Its like opening a can of bee's if one part is not working properly. Some people do fine and others start having alot of things go wrong. She needs to see a cancer specialist and go in saying I want lots of tests since I am having many different symptoms. If you need to copy whats in here and take it to her GREAT. Some of us work with patients and see these things on a daily basis. Bottom line is we care and want the best for her and the sooner she see's a doctor again the better.
Hope this helps! Tell Her Get Well From All of Us!

Losing toenails without having chemotherapy is worrying and should definitely be mentioned to a doctor. If your friend was losing toenails while having chemotherapy, I would have placed that as a side effect, but without chemo I'm at a loss to explain it unless there's been some physical damage.

I'm not sure if this is necessarily a symptom of the cancer metastisising, but it's definitely something to mention to the doctor.

If the woman has had chemo, especially taxol or taxotere, the loss of toenails would not be surprising as it is a fairly common side effect. Did she have chemo for the skin cancer? I have not heard of this as a sign of cancer metatases.

Blood from the nipple is not necessarily a sign of more advanced cancer, it can happen as a result of benign causes. But her doctors need to be aware of both the toenails and the blood.