Dear Mrs. Lyons,

Edited by steve - Nov 27 2010 at 11:46pm

Dear Mrs. Lyons,

I'm sorry about the circumstances that led you to this place, but I am happy to see that you found us. I have found tons of information and support here and as you will find we have a wonderful and loving community that really cares for everyine here.

I was also diagnosed at 32 a couple of years ago and as you I am BRCA1. I found a lump while breastfeeding my first child when he was 6 months old. I also faced the fertility issues when I was deciding about my treatment and at moment I decided to focus on my cancer treatment as I had been already blessed with a child and I just wanted at that point to take care of the cancer to make sure I could be there for my son. We are now facing new questions as we would love to have another child and we are now trying to decide if and when it would be right for us to try again...

What I can tell you is that so far it seems that fertility wise I did fine despite not having done anything to protect it prior to treatment. Time is on our side at this point as the younger you are the less likely chemo is to affect your fertility. I stopped having my period after my first chemo treatment and got it back almost a year after I finished it. Because of the BRCA+ thing I am under special surveillance for my ovaries (while I get rid of them too...)and so far it seems like they are working fine but I guess the test time will come when we decide to try again. This thing faces us with so many decisions but this is where this place had proved invaluable to me as it has allowed me to find the information and support I have needed to make them.

Please feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions or would just like to talk. We are here for you.

Best,

Natalia

Hello and welcome Mrs Lyons!

Congrats. on your marriage. Sorry you have had to join our site but as others say it is a wonderful source of support. Steve is suggesting good advice about checking out all the angles re fertility, options and risks.

I had no problem getting pregnant in my late 20s and mid thirties after extended and  intensive doses of AC, Methotrexate and Cytoxcen for bone cancer when I was 17/18. with osteosarcoma (bone cancer in my leg).  I also underwent several rounds of  IVF treatments (ICSI) in my thirties (my husband is a paraplegic) and we now have two lovely almost 13 year old boy/girl  twins. I sometimes wonder if the fertility treatments had anything to do with my BC diagnosis earlier this year by my onc. is more concerned about the potential link of my different cancers and possibly having  Li Fraumeni Syndrome and/or the  p53 mutation - he doesn't seemed fussed about prior fertility drugs.

Glad you joined this site and if I can be of any assistance or support, just let me know

Tracy in Toronto 

Hello Mrs. Lyons,

MrsLyons, Pam posted this article on research suggesting that it having BRCA mutation is a survival advantage  (maybe this will hep ease your fears):

Women With Both Triple Negative Breast Cancer And BRCA Mutations Have Lower Risk Of Recurrence

Patients with triple negative breast cancer that also have mutations in the BRCA gene appear to have a lower risk of recurrence, compared to those with the same disease without the deleterious genetic mutation, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The findings may offer a direction for study of personalized therapy in this select group of triple negative breast cancer patients, as well as highlight the unique need for genetic testing in a patient population. Ana M. Gonzalez-Angulo, M.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Departments of Breast Medical Oncology and Systems Biology presented the findings in advance of the 2010 Breast Cancer Symposium.

"There is data on the number of breast cancer patients with BRCA mutations, as well as those that have triple negative disease. However, there is no understanding of the incidence of BRCA1 and 2 mutations in unselected patients with triple negative breast cancer," said Gonzalez-Angulo, the study's first and corresponding author. "Now, there are new drugs that appear to be more effective in treating triple negative breast cancer and BRCA status may be an important way of selecting patients that may respond to these therapies."

Triple negative disease - breast cancer that is estrogen, progesterone and HER2-neu receptor negative - accounts for about 15 percent of all breast cancers. Currently, it's an area of much research focus in the breast cancer community because: it lacks effective targets effective for anti-cancer therapies; chemotherapy is only effective in about 40 percent of patients; and in those that do relapse, the disease is highly resistant and patients die quickly.

PARP inhibitors, a class of drugs of growing interest in cancer research, have shown promise in both patients with BRCA and triple negative disease. PARPs appear to be more effective in patients with BRCA mutations, as both PARP enzymes and proteins produced by the BRCA genes are involved in the repair of DNA. Therefore, the MD Anderson finding may provide an early idea of how to select those triple negative breast cancer patients that may respond best to therapy.

For this study, part of Gonzalez-Angulo's ongoing laboratory project, Molecular Characterization of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, the researchers sent both tumor and normal tissue of 77 women with triple negative disease to Myriad Genetics Inc. to identify germline (inherited) and somatic (in tumor only) BRCA mutations. Of those 77 patients, 15 (19.5 percent), were found to have mutations (14 germline, one somatic) -12 (15.6 percent) with BRCA1 and three (3.9 percent) with BRCA2.

The triple negative breast cancer patients were treated at MD Anderson between 1987 and 2006, and all but one received the same adjuvant chemotherapy regimen. The median follow-up was 43 months. The five-year relapse-free and five-year overall survival of the patients with either BRCA mutation, was 86,2 percent, and 73.3 percent, respectively, compared to 51.7 percent and 52.8 percent, respectively, in patients lacking mutations.

Mrs. Lyons,

Dear Mrs. Lyons,

Welcome, Mrs. Lyons and congratulations on your marriage.  Sorry you have cause to be here, but glad you found us.  It is a wonderful group of people here!  Please know that we are praying for you.

You go girl! 

Wow...what spirit and determination! I salute you ....