Am i Triple Negative?

dcarpenter

i knew my ER and PR were weak, but I got a copy of my oncotype dx score and it has me positive barely for ER 6.5  but negative PR with a score of 5.0--so i am borderline?  I am taking tomoxifen - My oncotype score was high at 33, with a stage I, 1.3 cm tumor--I am wondering if this ER/ PR weak score is what made my oncotype come back high.  Is is true that triple negative has a higher reoccurance rate, from what I understand in the begining you are higher but after a few years, the stats are the same as not being triple negative, thanks for any comments,,

Titan

Bonnie..love that kitty..what breed is he/she?

From what I understand..after a couple of years triple negs. recurrence rate drops significantly..so you can go with that...cancer is cancer so you will always have a worry but try not to worry so much and just live.  You had a small tumor, grade 2 and clean nodes...those are good things!

Ezscriiibe

dcarpenter, I have the same confusion you do. I had thought I was ER+ PR- and HER2- until I met with my radiation oncologist the other day. He made a face (hate those scrunchy faces!) and said, well, it's really a very VERY weak positive, so it would be safer to read it as a negative and proceed from there.

He actually said "very" twice. But then he did say that the medical oncologist would go over all that with me, but that very likely chemo would be necessary.

He honestly tried to explain to me the whys and wherefores of it, but all I could hear was the rushing of blood in my ears because that was the LAST thing I had expected to be told.

I will know more on Thursday I guess. I'm still confused about it though.

dcarpenter

thanks for all the responses! 

defeatbc

Hi dcarpenter.

I'm another borderline case.  Every doctor is a little different.  My doctor treated my case as a little bit of both:

Chemo -- as a Tri-neg (plantinum based chemo combo)

Targeted Treatment -- as receptor positive (Femara+Lupron, but now switching to Tamoxifen... it's long story...) .

The info by the previous post on "Tri-neg vs. Hormone Receptor Positive" prognosis is correct.   I just wish I know where I stand.  Do I get to celebrate the magical 3rd year NED like a Tri-neg?

Hoa (defeatbc)

dcarpenter

defeatbc,  where is that post--- tri-neg vs. hormone receptor positive- can't find it?

thenewme

Hi dcarpenter,

In case you haven't seen it, this article called "Triple-Negative Breast Cancer:  Clinical Features and Patterns of Recurrence" has a lot of good information about TN. It's from 2007, but there is a lot of current research on triple negative, so hopefully we'll see some breakthroughs soon!

http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/13/15/4429.full?sid=0dc83241-ddd2-4c00-829a-b6927fd5fb77 

One of the main points I got from it was "Compared with the other group [non-TN], women with a triple-negative breast cancer had an increased likelihood of distant recurrence within 5 years of diagnosis, but a significantly LOWER relative risk of recurrence thereafter."

Ezscriiibe (Michele) - thinking of you today and hoping for the best!

Titan

Does anyone know what the % of increase actually is?  For those of you that are into stats..I googles lifemath for breast cancer ..something like that...and you put your stats in..including treatment...I got 11% chance of dying withng 15 years...when I put in er and pr positive with the same stats, no chemo but tamoxifin..and it came out 8%...that is not a huge difference..but still a difference!