Calling all TNs

Thank you so much for your responses guys I only just noticed as I received no email to say you had replied. I’m feeling slightly less of a failure x

Good morning all,

I am off to meet the RO. Radiation Oncologist. Any tips other than stop typing and get out the door so you are not late?

I guess lowering my expectations might be in order. Don't expect a high end tanning salon, right?OK I'm off!

Kaiser has farmed this out to another provider, and I don't think that provider is a tanning salon, but ya never know, so here I go!!

Fracking out! Last stage of this planned treatment other than another post RADS reconstruct. Yay!

I had no nodes, 1.4 cm tumor and I was told definitely chemo and am doing it. They said with TN I would have avoided chemo only if tumor had been less than 5 mm.

So I expected going into my lumpectomy that I would need chemo.

I think they done use mammoprint for hormone negative tumors.

The information on this website says that MammaPrint can be done on hormone receptor negative tumors, but I didn't have that test. Didn't know about it until later, although apparently the test can be done on tissue preserved from surgery if that's still available. The OncoType test, though, is only done on hormone receptor positive breast cancer, also according to this webiste, see below.

When I was first diagnosed, my surgeon basically told me that chemo was necessary given the TN status, but that radiation might not be necessary even with lumpectomy depending on the size of the tumor which prior to surgery looked right on the line between radiation recommended and radiation not recommended. As it turned out, the actual size put me over the edge into radiation recommended territory. But there are a lot of factors to consider in making these decisions, and everyone has a different combination of circumstances.

Who's eligible for the MammaPrint test?

MammaPrint can only be used to analyze early-stage breast cancers. MammaPrint can be used on cancers that are:

• stage I or stage II
• invasive
• smaller than 5 centimeters
• in three or fewer lymph nodes
• hormone-receptor-positive and hormone-receptor-negative

The MammaPrint test can be performed on a sample of preserved tissue that was removed during the original biopsy or surgery.

Other genomic tests

There are other genomics tests used to analyze breast cancer tumors. To learn more, click on the links below.

• The Breast Cancer Index test is used to predict the risk of node-negative, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer coming back 5 to 10 years after diagnosis.
• The EndoPredict test is used to predict the risk of distant recurrence of early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that is either node-negative or has up to three positive lymph nodes.
• The Oncotype DX test is used to predict the risk of recurrence of early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, as well as how likely it is that a woman diagnosed with this type of cancer will benefit from chemotherapy after surgery. The Oncotype DX DCIS test is used to predict the risk of recurrence of DCIS and/or the risk of a new invasive cancer developing in the same breast, as well as how likely it is that a woman diagnosed with DCIS will benefit from radiation after surgery.
• The Prosigna Breast Cancer Prognostic Gene Signature Assay (formerly called the PAM50 test) is used to predict the risk of distant recurrence for postmenopausal women within 10 years of diagnosis of early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive disease with up to three positive lymph nodes after 5 years of hormonal therapy.

Seems way too big / too fast to be another BC lump. It might be a seroma, or fat, or a scar...? I know it's hard to be in suspense but it seems there are many little lumps post surgery so don't leap to a bad conclusion but do get it checked...

Val, I didn't know about the arthritis risk. That's interesting and worrying. I had some osteo (one thumb, one toe) just starting before dx and so I guess I can expect a progression?
I'm sorry to hear that your hip repair was not successful. That's a shame. I hope your doctors can find another solution for you.

Also had a question about your friend's recurrence - my MO said that after 5 years she would consider me cured and if I had any cancer after that would be a new one and not a recurrence? Is that correct?

Volleyballmom, don't rule out the puppy. I got tripped up a couple of weeks before my first post-treatment mammogram by a clumsy horse that I was leading, and I happened to fall onto my left side, which of course included my left breast -- the one that had the tumor in it last year. It wasn't a bad fall at all, and I didn't think anything of it, but later I found that I not only had a bruise on my skin, but also a lovely little hematoma about the size of a robin's egg in my breast. So when I turned up for the mammogram, I had a LUMP, which I had to explain to every single person I ran into. It was embarrassing. Also inconvenient, because they made me have an ultrasound to prove it was a hematoma, and I have to go back in eight weeks to have another to prove that it's gone. Anyway, if a very minor fall can produce a hematoma, I suspect that a 20-pound puppy landing on you might be enough to do the same thing.

Volleyballmom, - I bet it's scar tissue!

Val, - you've been through so much. I hope your discomfort eases, and your days of "no cancer thoughts" expand (and are contagious here

My tumour was 1.5cmand I have done 4 dose dense EC and currently still on taxol and carbo

Dee, are you talking to me, or to Mia? I didn’t take carboplatinbecause my immune system couldn’t handle it.

sorry guys I was talking to Farfalla🙈 I’m still new with all this tec

Thank you, ladies. I called my surgeon again today to see if I can get in sooner then May 9th because I knew I would of wasted the next week and half worrying instead of enjoying finally my free days after 10 months of treatment. They fit me in today.

Surgeon took an ultrasound and I have a sernoma, which she said is normal after rads. Breathing sigh of relief. Also set up port removal for June 10th. I can not say enough about how great my team of doctors are.

Thank you all on here also for always being here.

Volleyballmom, - so happy to read your update!!

Moth - great question! I'm wondering if some of the positive things I've read about certain diets are similarly linked to BMI.

I think looking into melatonin is worthwhile.  There have been some studies on TNBC specifically.  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3552359/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140128103117.htm

(linking to these studies is not an endorsement!  Just a resource for those inclined to do further research on the web and with their medical teams.)

I will always agree that a healthy diet and exercise are important. However, as a lifelong runner and vegetarian ( the healthy kind!) who has never been overweight, rarely sick and just overall in good health, I lack faith that it prevents cancer. If in the past you’ve been an unhealthy eater and didn’t exercise I would definitely do those things, but as one who always has- it’s discouraging to say the least.

Two thingsI did change was I stopped drinking alcohol and our public water.