Cisplatin works for triple negative breast cancer

Jaypee60 · April 2007

Article from The Cancer Blog:

It's called triple-negative breast cancer and it manifests itself in the lack of expression of two cell surface proteins -- estrogen and progesterone receptors -- and also the protein HER2.

It's a disease that does not typically respond to treatment with standard chemotherapy drugs and therefore, diagnosis can come with a poor prognosis. But a new study out of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston indicates this type of disease is sensitive to the drug cisplatin.
The study, appearing online in the April 19 Journal of Clinical Investigation and in the journal's May print issue, shows that triple-negative breast cancer expresses larger amounts of two proteins, delta-Np63 and TAp73. Delta-Np63 binds to TAp73 and prevents it from killing cancerous cells. Cisplatin does the trick, though, and releases TAp73 from delta-Np63. This causes the cells to die and offers hope for a sometimes hopeless disease.

Lisa40 · April 2007

Yipee! Lets hope this is it!! Lisa

Jaypee60 · April 2007

Here is another article from Science Daily and it goes into more detail:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070419172122.htm

If, for some reason, it won't come up just go to Science Daily website and click on health. A menu of health issues will come up on the left, click breast cancer.

LisaSDCA · April 2007

I was just coming to post about this myself!
I have no idea about my p63 and p73 staus, but I'm sure going to try to find out! Does anyone already have this info about their tumor(s)?
What's encouraging is that Cisplatin is already in use for other cancers, so the long wait for trials and approvals will be much abbreviated if this indeed shows efficacy against triple neg. tumors.

Lisa

FloridaLady · April 2007

Cisplatin is the oldest of the chemos in this famiy. And one of the hardest on the body. I find this odd that this work I have taken Carboplatin with other. I am in a Phase I trial (MAD Texas) for the newest platium drug Aroplatin and show stable disease only they are not sure it doing much of anything???? But,
I always hopefully of any new info.

mkl48 · April 2007

Why is dose dense AC/T the standard treatment if the efficacy is so poor?Beth

mkl48 · April 2007

That could be true, but the first trial is for advanced patients only which may mean those with mets. It will have to run a few years at best. Interestingly women at non academic centers may have earlier access since a local onc might be willing to try it if they could get the receptivity testing.It has to be tested against a known therapy doesn't it?

LaurieL · April 2007

A/C didn't work for me - so I ended up with Cisplatin and Gemzar. My onc was pretty confident with this saying they've had success with this chemo already. It is very hard on your body though. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

jdash · May 2007

i am confused! i have been told that chemo works best on triple neg tumors i had ACT before my surgery and i has 100% response from my tx

nosurrender · May 2007

It is true Julia! Tripneg cancers respond MUCH better to chemo than ER/PR++ cancers.

I posted a study here under the title "Good News for Triple Negs" and you can read how much better we do. Dr. Citron is one of the docs who ran the study.

Now they are seeing that many other drugs are also kicking tripneg butt... Cisplatin is one of them.

Your 100% response is a perfect example of how well chemo works!!

Love,g

Lisa40 · May 2007

Met with doctor today and she wants to switch me to cisplatin and gemzar. I have to wait 2 weeks as I just finished brain rads. Hoping this is the drug for me! Lisa

alagen · May 2007

Good luck with the new treatment Lisa. My wife has just started Navelbine (AC, Taxol + Avastin, & Xeloda + Avastin all failed). Hopefully it works or it looks like we may be on to Gemzar and or Cisplatin next.

Be well,
Alan

christinascott · May 2007

Hi everyone, I'm new. You all know so much, can you give me a hand? I'm a triple neg, but I have only just become aware of what it all means, I didn't get on with my oncologist, and took advice from my surgeon.
I am 45 and was operated in august 2006 (here in Italy) for a intaduttal cancer, the size of the section taken out was 11 x 7 x 3 cm .The benign cancer was 2.4cm but was surrounded by malignant pinpoints, the pinpoints however were not over 3mm (max). Grading G3 . The linfoglands were clear.
The surgeon advised only radiation, and that due to the size (less than 3mm) of the tumors that I could avoid the harsh effects of the chemo. Maybe he's right? Maybe he doesn't know the ins and outs of the triple neg? Now I don't know if I've really made a bad matter even worse by not having the chemo. When you read the 67% survival chances, do they take into account only who have had chemo and radio? Anyone in my position? Thanks, best wishes to all.
Chris

Bimmer · June 2007

My wife is triple negative, dx'ed Sep 06 with stage IV, given 12 to 14 months to live. She tried epirubicin, abaraxane, xeloda, navelbine, and finally carboplatin.
By the time that she started this 5th line of chemo in about a year or so she was very near death. We even talked about not starting it, call hospice and just living happily ever after. But, she /we decided that as long as she had life, she would fight on.
By this time she had three rather large cancerous clusters of engorged lymph nodes in her neck. They were so bad, that you could see them from across the room. I am sure that she would have soon died from the cancer that was filling her up. Two consecutive PETSCANs showed a rapid advance of the disease. Her outlook was bleak.
She started the carboplatin and withhin just one week, her lumps had begun to go down. By the third dose the lumps in her neck were all but gone. She just did the 9th weekly dose on Tuesday. She will complete the regime after 12 doses, then some scans to see what it looks like. But she has made a miraculous recovery. Her lumps are gone, she seems almost healthy. Carboplatin is why she is alive today. I am abslouely sure of it!
If your chemo is not working for you and you are triple negative tou may need to try either cysplatin or carboplatin.

tos · June 2007

That is just wonderful Bimmer!

zarowny9 · June 2007

Bimmer I sent you a PM.Please check your mail. This news is so wonderful

Dawn

jewels20227 · June 2007

Chris,

I did 6 rounds of Adrimycin, Taxotere, Cytoxan. The reason I went through chemo is 1). Triple neg status and also I was grade 3 which is very aggressive. Now I'm doing 30 rounds of radiation. I'll be done in 3 weeks. Everyone is different but with Triple neg and grade 3, my personal opinion is to do chemo then radiation. Good luck and I hope I helped a little.

Julia

Bimmer,

What a great turn around and inspiration! My prayers are with you and your wife for a continued recovery!

Bimmer · June 2007

My wife had also just finished rads, but rather then wait two weeks the Onc decided to start her immediately on the carboplatin and wait two weeks to start the gemzar. Because of this decision, she never had to take gemzar.
After just one dose of carboplatin she got a noticeable response (clusters of swollen nodes in her neck began to recede). Due to this the Onc decided to not give the gemzar which was both expensive and had it's own set of side efefcts. Now after 9 doses of carboplatin she has made a near miraculous recovery. The swollen nodes in her neck are gone, she is much better.
Good luck!

Bimmer · June 2007

Most chemo drugs attack rapidly growing cells and tries to kill them. Platnum drugs are different, they attack the repair mechanism in your DNA. Platnum drugs render the cells unable to repair themselves, extinguising the cancer cells.
I understand that there is very much research on Triple negs at M.D. Anderson. I am hopeful that my wife who is stage iv, but doing quite well right now, will live long enough to benifit from this research.

FloridaLady · June 2007

As previously noted I have been treated at MD Anderson for triple neg with Phase I trails. (Getting ready to start something new...mets to neck) I just wanted to pass on what the Audiologist told me my last visit. If they put me on Cisplatin there is 100% chance of some hearing loss.
This last trial I lost some hearing in my left ear.
He said it was because when you lose the fine hair in your ears it does not grow back always....this send the sound to the ear drum.

FYI got to do what we got to do
Fla Lady

kdsager · June 2007

In the midst of dense dose chemo. 4 round of AC done. 4 of Taxol to go, then radiation. Triple negative, massively aggressive, grade 3 cancer. I am discouraged to hear about the standard chemo not working as I had heard the heartening news that chemo is very effective with highly aggressive triple neg cancer. How do you know the chemo is not working?? Onc has not talked about doing any mid-stream testing. PET scan before chemo was clear except for some activity near my surgery incisions.

ravdeb · June 2007

Unfortunately, we don't know which chemo will work best on which person. They are doing studies to try to figure this out but they haven't really figured out the way cancer works in individual people.

They did studies that showed that the taxanes (taxol and taxotere) work well on triple negs so you are doing a good combo of chemo. The cisplatin, though not a new chemo, has been shown to work for triple neg too.

Remember..this is according to studies (which come out all the time) and stats. We aren't stats. We can only hope that what we took/are taking will work.

The good thing is that if didn't work, there are other options!

So there is lots of hope that it worked...

I believe that most of the triple negs are grade 3 at a high level. Am I correct? Anyone triple neg who is not grade 3? Just wondering...

cheekymonkey · June 2007

I was Stage 3 and triple Neg, and so was my sister. She has since moved on to Stage 4, and I am so far NED. I was treated with Cisplatin/Gemzar as I was resistant to Taxotere. She seemed to be resistant to everything, but I don't think she ever tried a platinum drug. I'm glad to hear that Cisplatin works well for us Triple Negs! (My sis has sworn off all chemo for the time, so we'll see what happens.)

Good luck to everyone!

mitzi

yowyow · June 2007

Hi Ravdeb, Grade 2er here. High grade DCIS but
IDC was grade 2. Onc said he treats as grade 3 anyway
as grade 2 can act like grade 3 or 1 ???? and triple neg
well we all know to hit that as hard as it can be hit.

Nav

twink · June 2007

Ravdeb...Grade 3 here too! Seems us triple negs are all over-achievers.

twink · June 2007

Dr. Roberts said, in the web conference on Wednesday, that triple negative is another category of tumors, not all identical and for which the 'variables' are not yet known (unlike the receptor positive tumors). That made sense to me...the reason why the chemo works better for some than others is that our cancers are probably different in some as yet unknown way. For me, the AC had little effect but the Taxotere kicked a**. My 3-3.5 cm tumor was reduced to 2 mm in extent after 4 DD Taxotere.

liven42day · June 2007

Quote:

My wife is triple negative, dx'ed Sep 06 with stage IV, given 12 to 14 months to live. She tried epirubicin, abaraxane, xeloda, navelbine, and finally carboplatin.
By the time that she started this 5th line of chemo in about a year or so she was very near death. We even talked about not starting it, call hospice and just living happily ever after. But, she /we decided that as long as she had life, she would fight on.
By this time she had three rather large cancerous clusters of engorged lymph nodes in her neck. They were so bad, that you could see them from across the room. I am sure that she would have soon died from the cancer that was filling her up. Two consecutive PETSCANs showed a rapid advance of the disease. Her outlook was bleak.
She started the carboplatin and withhin just one week, her lumps had begun to go down. By the third dose the lumps in her neck were all but gone. She just did the 9th weekly dose on Tuesday. She will complete the regime after 12 doses, then some scans to see what it looks like. But she has made a miraculous recovery. Her lumps are gone, she seems almost healthy. Carboplatin is why she is alive today. I am abslouely sure of it!
If your chemo is not working for you and you are triple negative tou may need to try either cysplatin or carboplatin.

What wonderful news Bimmer!

Anonymous · June 2007

I am so happy for you and your wife, Bimmer!

I'm also triple negative and my tumor was grade 3 as well.

jackieandeileen · June 2007

How do you know if you aren't responding to chemo? My mother just got chemo on Friday. It is now Sunday, and she has had no side effects except for being tired. Does this mean she isn't responding to the treatment?

FloridaLady · June 2007

It's too early to tell if she is responding. And how you feel does not tell you if it is working. (hopefully she will continue to feel good. I did through 7 chemos) The doctor will rerun her scans about every two months to check how she is progressing with treatment.

Indigoblue · June 2007

Variables...
When I mention these variables to oncs and surgs and rads, they invariably ignore me...
Cisplatin saved my friend who was Stage IV Colon Cancer.
It was lucky he got into the research trial. My mother was treated with obscene doses of Platinum years ago; and it assaulted her immune system. It was hopeful research at the time, over 25 yrs, which seems to have been refined.
So good to hear the news!

Let us know how it goes, bims.

Grade 3 here!

Indi

Cisplatin works for triple negative breast cancer

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