Calling all TNs

My treatment was mastectomy and chemo - double blast of the gun!

MBJ- Thank-you. It's interesting that my integrative doc I saw in NY was so against Vit C and expained in detail why one should not take it. It's surprising that docs differ so much from coast to coast.  How are you handling all of that rain I heard you are getting out there?

MicheleS- You are so right about forgetting what chemo was like.

This Carbo/Gemzar is not fun. Like MBJ said it's like volunteering for the flu. I've been asked if it is as bad as the AC I did and I can barely remember what the Taxol was like in August and September let alone the AC I did last June and July. When I see my onc tomorrow I will ask how long I will be getting it for. It was so nice having the time off of chemo when I had surgery I kind of got spoiled feeling so good for a while. Well heres to hoping it works!

I'm going to bake Christmas cookies today with my daughter and try and put off thinking about tomorrow. I hope everyone has a great day.

Tiffany~ I was dx'ed at 36, IDC (1.4cm) and DCIS (5mm) in my left breast, and TN.  I'm BRAC-.  With that said... I *still* had a bilat and had my ovaries out.

Hi All,

I have not been on here for so long - computer problems!!

Today is my 3 month from Chemo - check up last week was good!

Today I go in for my reconstructive surgery- excited but nervous - hate gong under!

Tiffany - I am BRCA+ and had lump in one breast  but I have a strong history of cancer on my mother's side.

Still haven't seen what has been all posted will have to take time and go back to look at the last 12-14 pages!! LOL

Happy Holidays, Kelli

Sugar- As usual all Drs are different. Mine said testing was automatic for anyone dx before age 50. Having 2 different cancers in the same breast and being TN made it mandatory! I opted for mx as the two areas were on the top of my breast and my BS said it would leave me with a sinkhole. Thanks for your response!

Wow--- subbed today for high school and one of the classes had us watching "Food Matters." Anyone ever see this movie? I felt like slitting my throat after watching it, as everything we do as a nation wrt eating is all wrong according to these guys. Apparently, all we need to do to stay healthy is eat organic food and Superfoods (Gogi, Acacia, Noni, etc.)

 Now, I have to go Google it and get the real facts, as apparently chemo will give you cancer and what you really need to do instead is have high level infusions of Vit. C to cure your cancer.

Yeah, right. I was reading something in BC.org about that very subject recently and recalled someone really debunked it with other studies.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of it made sense BUT, as a cancer patient a lot of it seemed like NONsense too. I realize many in here are seriously into trying to prevent recurrence, but this film just struck me as a bit over-zealous or, at a minimum, over simplistic.

I've got it. Let's all move to some remote mountainside, grow our own food, forget pharmaceuticals and take lots of Vit. C.

Wish it were that simple...

This movie got under my skin and, since I was the teacher, I couldn't turn it off!

SAN ANTONIO (EGMN) - The addition of the PARP inhibitor BSI-201 to chemotherapy with gemcitabine and carboplatin in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer resulted in a dramatic 50% reduction in the risk of death, compared with chemotherapy alone, in an updated analysis of a high-profile phase II study. 

These impressive phase II results with the poly (ADP [adenosine diphosphate]-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor have led to an ongoing, definitive, phase III registration study involving a planned 420 patients at more than 90 U.S. centers. Accrual for the trial is proceeding extremely rapidly, Dr. Joyce O'Shaughnessy said at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

"The PARP inhibitors certainly look promising. The phase III study will be finished in the first quarter of 2010. If the phase III holds up and confirms the phase II, hopefully BSI-201 will be available toward the end of 2010," added Dr. O'Shaughnessy, codirector of the breast cancer research program at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. 

The phase II study involves 123 patients with estrogen receptor-, progesterone receptor-, and HER2-negative measurable metastatic breast cancer who had received not more than two prior cytotoxic regimens. They were randomized to gemcitabine and carboplatin alone or in combination with BSI-201.

Initial results were reported in a plenary session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in 2009. In the update,median overall survival was 12.2 months in the BSI-201 group, compared with 7.7 months with chemotherapy alone (hazard ratio, 0.50; P = .005). Roughly 20 patients in each study arm remain unaccounted for; final overall survival results will be available in the spring. 

The therapeutic rationale for using a PARP inhibitor in the setting of metastatic triple-negative disease lies in the drug's ability to enhance chemotherapy-induced DNA damage. The PARP1 protein is the most abundant protein in the tumor cell nucleus. It plays a critical role in the repair of breaks in single-strand DNA. 

Inhibiting PARP1 results in single-strand breaks going unrepaired. They degenerate into double-strand breaks, which the tumor cells find particularly difficult to repair. So the cells die, Dr. O'Shaughnessy explained. 

BSI-201 didn't potentiate the familiar toxicities of gemcitabine and carboplatin. The frequency and nature of adverse events in the two study arms were similar. 

The PARP inhibitor was given intravenously at 5.6 mg/kg on days 1,4,8, and 11 of every 21-day treatment cycle. Gemcitabine and carboplatin were administered in standard fashion on days 1 and 8. 

BSI-201 is being developed by BiPar Sciences Inc. Dr. O'Shaughnessy is on the speakers bureau for Sanofi-Aventis, which has acquired the compan

monika>  gorgeous photo.  congrats!
Diagnosis: 9/25/2010, IDC, 2cm, Stage IIa, Grade 3, ER-, HER2-

brac1-2 both negative

wrapped CA 4x 1 taxol, allergic, start abraxane tomorrow X3, surgery, then rads. no known lymph nodes...... Anyone else have it under arm?

I know that follow ups vary with the different Doctors.  I was a little disappointed when I went to my first 3 month check up with my oncologist.  I ended up seeing the Nurse Practioner, not the doctor, and any ache and pain that I talked about she said it was chemo related.  No blood was drawn to be tested for any "signs" that IT came back.  I feel like the "every 3 month" check up is a waste of time...Are there any TNBC women out there that do not get blood drawn at their 3 month check up?   Thank you and I hope everyone is having a good day and a stress free holiday.

Laurajane:  I hope I helped and didn't confuse.  You are correct, they do things differently East Coast vs West Coast, not completely, but often enough to notice.  I had all of my treatment at Norris Cancer Center, a prestigous research, state of the art treatment center.  I can't wait until they finish research on the Cyber knife so that women will no longer be radiated and the knife does it all with surgery, ending so much pain and misery.  Hugs.

Fighter:  Your name says it all.  You will get through this and before you know it a year will have gone by and you will be so much better and have hair and your brain will start to come back.

Heidi:  I know there wasn't anything to agree with or disagree with.  I guess that was my point.  It struck a nerve and I ranted.  Hope I didn't offend.  I can't believe that everything is bad for us, or I just wouldn't get up in the morning.  I too wish it were so easy.  Sigh.

Sugar:  Yes!!!!  I do.  And from Austrailia and New Zealand, too.  It's just the US that is so backwards and profit motivated.

Teka:  The grass is at least a healthy green eleswhere, lol.  You too, Teka!

Hi MBJ,

Is it sugar, or fat, that 'feeds' cancer?  Or both?  Have you read the diet recommendations of Dr. Keith Block - and if so, what do you think?  Why hasn't my oncologist even heard of him?

tx for any opinion..