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Mom Being Treated as TNBC Patient

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plumsunflower101 View Drop Down
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    Posted: Jan 12 2017 at 2:22pm
Hello All,

I found this website through users on Youtube! They spoke so highly of this site and just from lurking on the threads...I've seen so much positivity and knowledgeable sources. I feel like I've learn quite a bit within a short amount of time.

I'm writing this for my mom to help some advice and support. To make long story short. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, my mom was dx with breast cancer. My mom religiously goes to do her mammo every year. My mom had felt a lump on her left breast for almost 2 years now but they told just it was just dense tissue and sent her on her way. Well, they recently said she didn't have dense tissue and it was in fact a malignant lump. They're also concerned that some axilla lymph node may be affected. She did an ultrasound and biopsy. Biopsy said her tumor was 3 cm. Biopsy for the lymph node came back negative but doc was still suspect about the lymph node because it was enlarged. They said because of that, they can't determine if she's a stage 2 or 3.

After the CT scan, it showed her lump was about 2.8 x 2.0 cm (onc now saying it's about 2 cm). It showed that her left lymph node was more prominent than the right. It showed no signs of metastasis. Her KI-67 was at a 67% grade 3. Although, my mom tested ER+; however, it was only at 5% so her onc said she was going to treat her as a triple neg patient because of how aggressive her tumor was. Her treatment was going to be: 8 rounds of chemo (AC and Taxol), lumpectomy, and then radiation. My mom started her chemo last week Friday. So far, she's experiencing fatigue but no major side effects. She was able to go to work for the past 3 days. I've been sharing with her all of your positive stories and it's really helped her feel better about having chemo! Smile

Our biggest worry is that the onc said that TNBC responds really well to chemo. And that many patients usually get cleared of the disease at the end of treatment. The onc highly suggested chemo (my mom at first didn't want it) because it will up her chances for survival. But I've sooooo many stories of recurrence. Is this happening because the chemo is not working? It freaks me out because I have high hopes for her beating this cancer but then I see the medical articles about how TNBC is so aggressive that many have metastatic cancer within months. What can be done to prevent recurrence? My mom's onc said the chances of recurrence is roughly 10% with chemo...but I have a hard time believing that. Any suggestions, advice, your perspectives?

Thank you all so much!!!!

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gordon15 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gordon15 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan 12 2017 at 3:19pm
Sorry to hear about your Mom. Did she have a needle biopsy of the lymph node?

Sometimes (maybe often, not sure, but happened to my wife) it's hard for the technician to biopsy, because it's fatty tissue and slips around, or there might be a small cancer in a lymph node where the needle misses, leading to a false negative. If the node is enlarged, (there could be other reasons, like infection, etc) they usually look for the fatty coating on the node, if it is gone (2 were of 5 with my wife) it's almost always a sign of cancer. Lipia or hipia I think the word is... anyway, are they going to do a sentinel node biopsy later to make sure?


wife: IDC/Lobular Stage2B 2008 lumpectomy/TAC+rads
TNBC Stage 3A/w/metaplastic/squamous Nov2015 Carboplatin-Gemzar chemo/masectomy Taxolchemo+rads 4-16
PET scan stable 9-2016/ 1-2017
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