Initial primary was ER/PR+, now 2nd is ER/PR-

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Mermaid2007
Mermaid2007 Member Posts: 1
edited June 2014 in Second or Third Breast Cancer
My mom was diagnosed with BC (right) in 2002, stage IIB, grade 3, ER/PR+, HER2 Negative. She had a lumpectomy, 4/13 nodes were infected, this was followed by 6 cycles of FAC, 36 RADS and tamox for 5 yrs. In late 2006 she was diagnosed with BC (left), stage I, grade 3, ER/PR-, HER2 Negative. Tamox was stopped immediately as the doctors felt the new tumour had escaped Tamox and endometrial thickness had increased to 9.5mm. This time she had a bilateral mastectomy, 6 cycles taxotere and carboplatin, no rads.

Has anyone had an initial primary which was ER/PR+ and a second primary which is ER/PR- ? Currently very confused about whether Arimidex etc. are useful in such cases ? Does anyone know of such a situation and whether the cancer is then treated based on recent tumor's ER/PR- status or both old tumor's ER/PR+ status as well as recent tumour's ER/PR- status, as now there are 2 types of cancers in the body?? Would be glad to hear from anyone out there who has had to deal with something like this! There doesn't seem to be any information about this on the internet, hence wondering if this is something which is very rare!
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  • mkl48
    mkl48 Member Posts: 350
    edited May 2007

    Not sure I understand is new tumor ER+PR-. If not, how did it escape Tamox-?If er- the new tumor wouldn't have been fed by estrogen? Tamoxifin does not have an impact on er- tumors, so I wonder why not continue it or an AI to keep the first from recurrance or distant disease and use chemo for the second? It doesn't see tha unusual to have a second tumor or a met be different than the original. Gina, Nosurrender, on this site had er-IDC and new tumor is lobular ER+. EEdwards had +met with negative original. It would be interesting to know how often this happens. I wonder if they are independent events or the interaction of the Tamox and what ever initiates a tumor is what causes the change as though ER- is a default posittion if the estogen is blocked??

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  • nosurrender
    nosurrender Member Posts: 2,019
    edited June 2007
    It sounds like she had a new primary like mine. A completely different cancer that is totally unrelated to the first one.

    My cancer, as Beth said, was first diagnosed five years ago as tripneg, IDC. Then two months ago I was dx'd with invasive lobular ER/PR+ cancer.

    It can happen.

    It sounds like the arimidex would help keep the first cancer in check, but as for her second diagnosis, tripnegs have no Arimidex- type drug to prevent recurrance because they are impervious to estrogen.

    I hope this helps a little.
    g
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  • Jackson
    Jackson Member Posts: 22
    edited June 2007

    This happened to me. My original cancer in my left breast was ER+ then I was diagnosed with cancer in my right side that was ER-. I am on Aromasin to hopefully keep the ER+ cancer cells away even though my right side was ER-.

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  • Marie_S_
    Marie_S_ Member Posts: 47
    edited June 2007
    Quote:

    ...Has anyone had an initial primary which was ER/PR+ and a second primary which is ER/PR-?...



    This sometimes happens with long term tamoxifen use. Read the follwing -
    http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/studshowerne.html
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  • corgigirl
    corgigirl Member Posts: 19
    edited September 2007

    Nov. 05, original r/breast DCIS ER/PR-, Her2nu+++ treated with lumpectomy/rads.  Dec. 06 diagnosed left breast with DCIS and this time ER/PR+.  Doctor said it was two different cancers and not a recurrance.  Had a bilateral with immediate reconstruction (which failed due to infection) end of Dec. 06 and feel fine.

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  • php01
    php01 Member Posts: 17
    edited November 2007

    I am ER+, PR-, Her2 borderline+, which means treat as negative,  so they call me negative as far as medications go. they put me on AC/T first, and 6 weeks of radiation, then a month of femorra, but it didn't do anything, with in the next 2 months I was diagnosed with Mets to lungs/rib/lymph nodes in neck and chest(I had a swelling in my neck it was a lymph node with a tumor)--they put me on ARomisin for a month, it didn't slow anything down so I am now on chemo again-first with 4 bouts of  taxofere and gemzar, but the next PET scan said there was increased activity--so we stopped that and went to navalbene and after 4 bouts my doc said it needed more time to see so at the end of this month we will do another 27/29 tumor marker and hopefully it will work for me.

    Good luck, the negatives are not the luckiest in the world, but keep the faith and keep putting one foot in front of the other!!! 

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  • mke
    mke Member Posts: 584
    edited November 2007

    I had much the same thing.  1998, ER/PR+ no nodes, rads, 5 years tamoxifen.  2006 other breast ER/PR - Her2+, node positive, chemo, rads, herceptin.  Lumpectomies both times.

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  • kris2386
    kris2386 Member Posts: 56
    edited January 2008
    My mom was ER/PR+ Her2- in 2001 stage 2, now she is triple neg stage 4 as of Oct 2007.  She originally had lumpectomy, radiation and tamoxifen.  She is doing chemo (abraxane/gemzar) now and continuing the aromasin (she started after 4 years of tamoxifen).  I guess there are alot of false negatives sometimes?  We are covering both negative and positive.  I hope it works.  Her mets are bone, lung and liver. 
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  • lily_b
    lily_b Member Posts: 18
    edited January 2008

    What is 27/29?

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