Deb Bailey never thought she'd be recovering from a hip replacement at age 38, never mind being treated for advanced-stage lung cancer that had spread to her bones.

"I've got it on my hips, my sacrum, my spine my ribs, luckily no other organs," she said.

As Elizabeth Edwards learned last year when her breast cancer returned, being in remission isn't the same as being cured.

"For breast and lung and prostate, you're always considered at some risk for having your disease spread to the bones," said Dr. Jason Weisstein of the University of Washington.

Deb's case is a bit unusual, given her age and the fact she was a nonsmoker at the time of diagnosis.  As a result, her lung cancer wasn't discovered the first time around until it had already spread to her spine. This is her second bout which led to more radiation and that hip replacement.

"It's a totally different game for me now and it scares me more than it did last year ...and I'm actually worried about what's next... what's it going to do next. Where's it going to crop up next," she said.

According to Dr. Weisstein, former cancer patients need to pay extra attention to every little twinge.

"Any patient who has a history of cancer with a new ache or pain should at least be worked up systematically with an x-ray to look at the bone to see if it's been affected by potentially a cancer," he said.

This time Deb paid attention sooner, and is glad she did.

"I consider myself lucky that I had pain in order to catch these things," she said.

Any cancer has the potential to spread to the bones, but especially breast, prostate and lung cancers. About 100,000 cases of bone metastasis are reported each year in the U.S.