Triple postive??

Hey there--

I am triple positive.  I was DX on 5/1/07-had 4 AC/4Taxol and currently doing Herceptin and Tamoxifen.  Had mast and recon in Novembwer 07.  Last Friday, I received the awesome news that my liver and breast (good breast) MRI's are normal.    Chemo has officially placed me into Menopause.  I am very thankful for Herceptin.  I have an echo scheduled for Friday.  Hoping that my heart continues to do well with the Herceptin.  I lost my mom ten years ago to BC.  I wish that Herceptin was around for her. 

I'm new here and I was dx on 10/20/07.  I am also triple postive.  My dx 1.2cm IDC ER/PR+ and HER2+.  Jeannine

Another triple pos here.

Did CAFx6 six years ago and less than 2 years of tamoxifen. Still NED, doing well. Didn't do Herceptin.

Using exercise to be within proper BMI, moderate amount of sunshine as often as possible (when I can get it), organic diet, no sugar, no red meat, and balancing omega-3 fats with omega-6 fats.

Going for at least 20 more,

AlaskaAngel

Hey girls ~ I just got my lab report faxed over and apparently I am +++ as well. My only question is this ~ from what I read, I gather that I can opt for a partial hysterectomy as opposed to doing the Herceptin x1 weekly for up to a year. Am I getting this right? I already have low blood pressure (average is 85/60) and have had angina attacks in the past because of it. I do not think I will be a candidate for Hercepting ~ but would take out my ovaries in a heartbeat to better my chances for a cure. I have my 1st appointment on Friday and intend to discuss a bilateral at that time ~ should I also bring up the hysterectomy now so they can plan my treatment to include that?

Dear flyrzfan,

I don't know about the partial hysterectomy thing.  I had an oopharectomy 1 year before my first breast cancer.

An ooph may help with er+ cancer, but I still had to have chemo and radiation. First cancer er/pr+ Her2-.

My second cancer was er+/pr+/HER2+++.  I don't think the ooph will help the Her2 portion as it is something totally different, your body is making to much human epithelial growth factor.  Herceptin is an antibody.

Remember, my ooph was 7 years prior to my second cancer.  I would double/triple check on that.

My best to all,

Di

Hey there fellow trip +++'s,

    Another trip here. I was dx almost 8 yrs ago, this May coming.I was just about to turn 39. I was in the origianl herc. trial, where half of the woman got herc for 6 months and the other half for 1 yr. I was put into the year program. I also had chemo and rads. Then tamox. for almost 5 yrs.  thats when I  had my recur to the lungs. So back on chemo and Herc. It took a few different chemos with the herc. and almost 2 yrs to go into remission. It really seems like forever the second time around, but I have been off of chemo and only on Hercp. now for about 5 months. I get hercp every 3 weeks, and I also get lupron shots  monthly to shut down the ovaries( I 've been getting them for about a yr and a half now. Still haven't gone into full menopause with all of this....I get 2d echos every 3 months , and so far everything is fine with the heart, I'll be on hercp. for life I suppose...Just had scans and everything seems fine for now..

    Yes trip+++ is aggressive but like esserbre said , we do have alot of options with treatment ..My mother also died of bc and I wish Hercp. had been available to her then... Every day is another day that a new drug could be found, so I'll take the se's and keep taking the hercp. until then...

    Best wishes to all of you...Hugs KLynn 

Hello all,

Yes, triple positive is odd and I'm one of them too.  Also an oddity - grade 1 (most are 2 or 3) and that caused us to send pathology on to Mayo to be redone and confirmed.  I'm doing 6 of docetaxel, carboplatin (1 down), year of hercepting (2 down), radiation, and antihormone therapy.  Basically we're doing all we would have done for a more aggressive and larger tumor.  Mine was 0.7cm, node negative, grade 1, stage 1b.

What a journey we're on!

Heart issues are the most significant issue, so far as I know.  I believe also rare possibility of lung/breathing complications.

Looks like I'm joining this club - my oncologist just informed me today that my Fish score was positive - so that makes me a triple positive now. I had been so confident that I'd only need the anti-estrogen drugs since my tumor was less than 1cm and Grade 1 ("well-differentiated) with no lymph-node involvement, my Oncotype DX score was very low AND my BRCA1 and BRCA2 scores were negative. So it came as a complete shock to finally hear that the Fish results were positive.

One funny emotion - having learned that my tumor was more aggressive than previously thought makes me happy I opted for the mastectomy......even after a month, I still had doubts that I did the right thing (with the Diep reconstruction - the staph infection - the stiff arm, etc etc). My oncologist is requesting a second opinion on the Fish report though because he was so surprised to see it read positive.......and because he doesn't trust Quest labs (they sent my original samples out for the Fish test). I'll know in 4-5 days if indeed I need chemo...........but as I've felt in my bones from the start of this roller-coaster ride - I feel like I've been strapped into the bad-luck seat and it's best to keep my eyes wide-opened and be ready for anything......sigh.....

I too am triple positive and getting Herceptin once/wk with 8 mon to go (following A/C X 4, Taxol X 4).   My onc put me on Arimidex recently and so far so good with no se's.  When I had surgery last Sept, my surgeon said it was good to be triple positive (I think she was trying to throw a good light on everything) since there were txs for each.  I wasn't too happy about the Her-2+ part though.  My path report didn't say how aggressive it was, just that it was positive.   I could accept that I had bc but not that it was Her-2+ -- that part took a long time to sink in and maybe it hasn't yet. 

But I'm SO glad we have Herceptin, and Tykerg and other targeted therapies are on the horizon.  Last fall I read a book called Her2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer written by Robert Bazell.  It tells about the discovery of Her2, the clinical trials with Herceptin, the money and politics involved, etc. and I realized that there were many stops and starts before this drug was approved.   We are so fortunate to have Herceptin available to us.  

I'm triple pos too!  Don't panic by the Stage IV dx.  I was stage IV on initial dx and I'm here to tell you that Herceptin works!!   I'm not NED but I went from an initial dx of 27 spots on my liver and 2-4 small spots on my spine down to 3-5 small spots on my liver and stable to healing lessions on my spine!  I did 6 rounds of chemo along with Herceptin and I'll be on Herceptin for as long as it continues to work - which I hope is a very, very, long time.  In a very odd way, being stage IV, I'm glad to be triple positive as it gives me  alternatives to chemotherapy to keep my cancer under control!   It's been 1 1/2 years since my inital dx and so far so good.  Scans coming up next week and I'm hoping I continue on the herceptin/arimidex ride!!  But, even if the news isn't the greatest, I'm still encouraged as Tykerb/Xeloda is approved for Her2+ cancers and I've also found 2 other trials in Phase II testing that are specific to women with Her2+ cancers and of course there are tons of hormonal treatments out there!!!

So......I'm hoping my story didn't scare anyone off, but instead gave you confidence that the treatments for triple positives do work!

Wendy

Hi there, I'm triple positive too although I "only" have DCIS.  My hospital (The Royal Mardsen in the UK) routinely test hormone status of all patients in case that is info that is needed further down the line.

Another triple positive here! Dx in Feb with IDC (including DCIS), stage 2, grade 3, ER+ (70%), PR+ (50%), Her2+. Primary tumor was approx 3.9cm x 3.4cm, or something like that. Had a wide lumpectomy with ALND 3/13; surgeon took 2 add'l tissue samples, adjacent to/just outside of tumor's immediate margins. Good thing he did that; immediate margins were clear, but one of the add'l samples had "islands" of cancer cells. Approx 3 or 4 nodes were positive out of 21 or 22 taken. (The positive nodes were clumped together; difficult to tell just how many!) Went back for a re-excision/wider lumpectomy 4/3; surgeon took 3 generous samples. Had post-op 4/10, all samples were clean! I'll be starting chemo on Monday (4/14): A/C x4 dose dense, followed by Taxol + Herceptin (12x weekly). Then I get radiation (33 tx, 5x/wk, for 6-7 wks), plus continuing on Herceptin once every 3 wks, til I've been on Herceptin for a year. After radiation, I'll get some hormonal therapy t/b/d. (Presently in that gray area between pre- & post-menopausal, so I think my onc is waiting to see where I am when I'm ready to start that. Right now it looks like Tamoxifen, but that could change.) Had bone & CT scans (chest, abdomen, pelvis) before 1st surgery; no sign of cancer anywhere else. I had a Muga scan on 3/27 & will have another approx 12 wks into treatment (I think - don't have the schedule in front of me) & every 12 wks til I'm done with Herceptin.