Triple Negative Cancer- within 5 years from childbirth

BanR

Hi everyone

Eager to know how many of you fall in my category- getting diagnosed with TNBC 5 years after childbirth. I breastfed my child for a good 2 years and gradually she weaned off.

What did your doctors say about pregnancy and lactation?

I come across articles on this topic even more these days- pregnancy raises the risk of TNBC the first 5 to 7 years but gives a protection in the long term.

Thank you

NinjaMeow

I was diagnosed when my youngest was a year old.... I was 39 so I always wondered if advanced maternal age and childbirth were factors as well. I did not breast feed long term -

BanR

You are lucky that you did not get it in your first pregnancies.AT least you could complete your family. Not sure about advanced Maternal age- did you discuss with your doctor?

NinjaMeow

It is funny bc the irony is I specifically remember reading about how AMA and potential of increased risk of breast cancer and a few months before diagnosis I read an article about TNBC bc I had never heard of it before 🙈 Mydoctors never really brought things like this up before or after diagnosis. I have found so many varying answers from exposure to a chemical at a young age or other theories..... I finally concluded that I don’t think there is a silver bullet answer.

exbrnxgrl

ninjameow,

There are an abundance of theories, suspicions and tangential connections that may or may not explain what causes bc. Certain things, like genetic mutations, do pre-dispose someone to greater likelihood of developing bc. Other things, diet, environment etc. are harder to pin down. In general we should all aim for healthy lifestyles (but compulsive diets/protocols are still mainly theoretical).

Anecdotes about those who are in similar circumstances to you can be comforting but they are not data. Remember this forum is largely composed of those who have bc but you have no way of comparing them to those who were pregnant in that 5-7 year window and did not develop bc. Research can sometimes be confusing and contradictory but anecdotes are just personal stories with lots of confounding factors that may play into how someone developed or didn’t develop bc. It is unfortunate but in many, many cases we may never know (at this point in time) why someone developed bc. All the best

NinjaMeow

Exactly!

BanR

The latest research - 2019 and there is more in 2020 publication.

There could be an entire list that can be triggers.

Pregnancy is one of them- it wont affect the majority but will affect a few.

Some more interesting reads on medical journals on the process of cell differentiation in a lactating breast and readjustment after weaning off .

https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/80/9/17...

moth

Not being pregnant is also a risk factor for breast cancer.

Not lactating is also a risk factor for breast cancer. (& in fact, the response is dose related - the more months a woman breastfeeds, the lower her risk of breast cancer).

women's bodies are complicated in no small part because of two X chromosomes usually one of them is actually silenced but variations in expression may be the reason why women are more prone to auto immune disorders https://www.nature.com/articles/nri2815

we also have to be able to carry a parasite (ie the fetus) which requires our immune system to change how it views 'self' versus 'non self'. During pregnancy and lactation, numerous tissues expand in number - which again is a risky proposition as it requires stopping the normal cellular "stop reproducing" signals. Turning those off and not turning them back on again leads to uncontrolled cellular growth which is essentially cancer.

I think at the cellular level we will continue to discover all sorts of mechanisms for why cancer is triggered in various scenarios.

I'm a triple neg but I was diagnosed when my youngest was 19. I did breastfeed for many years so perhaps that delayed things - it's impossible really to drill down the reasons for an individual's disease, just for the population trendlines.

My doctors have always been very strong advocates of lactation and have mentioned that pregnancy is protective.

BanR

Yes Pregnancy is protective, however the protection starts 20 years later after the last pregnancy is what the current research points to. In Medical science Its called the PPBC ( Post Partum Breast Cancer). This is something that is getting published in medical journals 2019 onwards and before that I had come across just a local study dated 2012 which indicated the same.

The idea of this research is not to scare women but to increase awareness that after pregnancy the risk of TNBC is higher for the next 5 years or so. Hence women and doctors need to be more cognizant. Esp when you are breast feeding it is very easy to take a new lump or a recurring mastitis infection casually.

Breast density, a recent pregnancy, genetic mutations, Lifestyle issues, exposure to pollutants, age of the woman, age of puberty onset etc - the list is long. In fact in many countries the law mandates that a women should be told of high breast density so that her follow ups are designed accordingly and that high breast density is as much a risk factor for cancer as a positive genetic mutation.

Of the entire list that can cause TNBC, we don't know who among us fell in what category. There are 7 subsets of TNBC and we are dealing with a disease that is till date defined by the absence of something and not by the presence of anything.

exbrnxgrl

BanR,

I love your tag line, “Theory of randomness...so unfair.” I have learned to embrace randomness to a certain extent 😊

BanR

exbrnxgrl.... Thanks

santabarbarian

moth what you wrote about the breast and the changes to a woman's body... you put that really well!

AnnaMO

I was diagnosed when my youngest was in Kindergarten. She was 5. I hadn't breastfed since my oldest who was 10 at the time of dx.