Best advice for Grade 3 Triple Negative Breast Cancer?

Hi Ed,

Sorry you are going through this. I can tell you from my experience that the beginning is the worst, when you are doing tests and waiting for some sort of plan. If you are happy with her surgical oncologist, then I'm sure he is doing everything properly. Sometimes it takes a bit of time at the beginning. If they were worried that it needed to be taken care of this very second, they would be doing it. But that's not usually the case. A few weeks typically does not affect anything and it's better to know all the options and figure out the proper treatment plan than rush. So that's probably what they are doing. I think it was about 6 weeks until I had my initial surgery, from the date I first met with the surgeon. But I would express any concerns you have when you have your next appointment with one of the doctors. They should be able to answer any questions and give you explanations for everything they are thinking.

Chemo before surgery (neo-adjuvant) is often done when the tumour is larger, to help shrink it down before surgical removal. I can't say what the criteria is for deciding that so probably best to discuss that with the oncological team. I had my surgery prior to chemo, so I can't really comment too much on that.

Best of luck to you and your wife. If she has more questions, these boards are defintiely a great resource.

Ed - A diagnosis like this really takes the wind out of your sails at the beginning.  Reading your message brought me back to the beginning of my journey.  As the others have said, this is, without a doubt, the scariest part.  I did have chemo first (neoadjuvent).  As my oncologist explained, it attacks the cancer cells that are in your body before they can "set up shop" anywhere else.  It also gives the doctors a chance to see if the standard protocal of chemo drugs is effective on your wife's tumor.  In my case, with just one chemo treatment, the tumor started to shrink.  I had a much larger tumor than your wife's (and involved lymph nodes) and I had no evidence of disease in my breast tissue or lymph nodes at the completion of my chemo. Hang in there, and feel free to ask any questions along the way.  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and you will find yourselves on this end of things before you know it. 

Kathy

p.s.  My husband was my biggest supporter and I know I couldn't have been so successful with everything without him by my side.  I'm so happy for your wife that she has you to be active part of her recovery.  You will be more instrumental than you probably realize at this point.  Don't forget to be good to yourself through this journey too.  This is something you're tackling together. 

Hi all...this is my firtst time posting anything.  I have just been reading.  I just turned 38 and was diagnosed with TNBC stage IIB.  I only now realise how little I have known about breast cancer.  I didn't even know that there was something called triple negative.  I started neoadjuvant chemo last week.  I am doing weekly Taxol.  I am scared though.  I had a long journey so far.  I had five different doctors tell me that I don't have cancer and I should not worry.  I had several ultrasounds and mammograms that showed a mass with no malignant characteristics.  I had a fine needle aspiration that came back normal.  I just kept at it because my lump was growing really fast and it was painful.  My BS did an excisional biopsy and that came back positive.

I am scared.

Good afternoon:

I had chemo first, and I had the best possible outcome - a complete pathological response. That means that there were no detectable cancer cells after chemo was completed.  That improves longterm recurrence-free survival probability by a ton!

Some stuff I've read recently indicates that carboplatin in combination with the taxol / taxotere chemotherapy is particularly effective with triple negative tumors.  I was in a clinical trial (called ISPY2), and I received that combination plus an experimental drug for 12 cycles. Then, I had four cycles of AC.  Chemo was hard but manageable.

After about three weeks, I then had a double mastectomy (I choose to skip recon).

I'm coming up on two years since diagnosis, and so far, I remain NED - that is, no evidence of disease.

I hope that helps.  And above posters are totally right - this time is the hardest time - all the unknowns... Once treatment begins, things will get a bit easier...

Good luck.

Lee

PS - my better half was also my biggest supporter... made everything better.

Thanks Kathy....your post was inspirational to me....you would not believe how much it means.  I thought I was alone in this war until I came here and so all these brave strong women.  It gave me hope and strength.  

Hi Ed,



Like others have said you are in one of the hardest parts of this journey which is deciding which treatment is best for your wife. I am triple neg and brca1 positive and I also had a complete patholgical response to the neoadju. Chemo we did. Pick a doctor that you trust and follow their advice. I chose a doctor that had a lot of experience with triple neg patients.



Good luck to you and your wife, my DH has been the greatest supporter and I couldnt have done this journey without him. Your wife will need you a lot during this.

Just popping in, one of my bffs who i met on here is five years out from triple neg in the nodes... she did chemo first then sugery  

Hello All, my name is Deborah and I am posting on behalf of my sister Barbara.  Barbara is my 75 year old widowed sister.  She has been recently diagnosed with triple negative stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.  Following her PET scan, the cancer is showing in her lungs and bones.  The oncologist gives her a year with chemo, months without.  She also has Type 2 diabetes.  She is scheduled to have the mediport placed on Monday with chemo beginning on Tuesday.  I am her primary caregiver and I'm feeling very inadequate to know how to help her through the chemo and helping her control her diabetes at the same time.  I have so many questions I don't know where to start.....

Deborah, I have Type 2 diabetes.  I went to see my GP just before I started chemo.  He has taken care of my diabetes for several years.  Also, his wife is a breast cancer survivor so he has first-hand insights.

He stressed that he didn't want me losing any weight.  His recommendation was to take my pills but to eat what I felt like eating.  As he said, a few months off my diabetic diet isn't going to do any permanent harm.  As an example, he said I could have that slice of apple pie I have craved so much, but "don't eat the WHOLE pie."  He also recommended those nutritional drinks like Boost sugar free, the kind the hospitals give to patients who aren't eating well (darn, the chocolate one is good!).

Perhaps an appointment with the doctor who monitors your sister's diabetes is in order. 

Although my TNBC was very small, I just had my BMX last Thursday and my nodes were negative and I just found out that on my pathology report there was NO cancer in my breasts that were removed! I had even waited 2 months before surgery because a change in my mind to do mastectomy rather than lumpectomy, so I thought it might grow some by the time of surgery. I feel it was no longer there in part because of my radical health/ lifestyle changes that I made. I cut out most sugar, most alcohol (very occasional glass of Moscato), processed foods, red meat only once/ week and LOTS of fruits and veggies, organic milk and chicken, and more fish. I did shakes with ReLive products and quite frankly was feeling wonderful before surgery. I had many people praying for me and I did a lot of praying myself. I also got myself back to exercising 5 days a week, 30-60 minutes per time. So, to get the news that they didn't find any was soooo encouraging. My Oncologist said that I do not need chemo. My plan is to continue on my healthy lifestyle to keep "C" from rearing its ugly head anywhere else in my body! Keep up your fight ladies, and do everything healthy that you can for yourself, you'll feel so much better too! Xoxo - Liz. Ps, another good side effect is that my husband and 2 young girls are eating healthier too!

Hi, I am Renee. My sister (age 46) was diagnosed several months ago with triple negative breast cancer. She is having the chemo first, and she has one treatment left to go. Yesterday she met with the surgeon, and now has to make the difficult decision regarding lumpectomy or mastectomy. The surgeon is ok with either choice, but says she will need radiation no matter what because there is lymph node involvement.  She is very distraught because at the beginning the surgeon said he "liked to save as much of the breast tissue as possible" and was leaning toward lumpectomy. Now he seems to have changed his tune, but he won't come out and say what he thinks she should do. He just says "it's a very personal choice" and says it is up to her.  When he told her she would need radiation either way, he added "you know, this is a very bad type of cancer". He also told her (for the first time!) that there was a 2nd small tumor "adjacent" to the first tumor (which we thought was the ONLY tumor!) However, she seems to be responding to the chemo well. The tumors have shrunk quite a bit. Still, the things he said yesterday felt a bit ominous. I am so worried about her that I have not been able to sleep last night or tonight (which is why I am posting at 3 am).  I would REALLY appreciate some advice and/or perspective from you ladies who have been in her shoes. Thanks!!!