October is “Breast Cancer Awareness Month“. The stores are filled with items from jewelry to t-shirts to kitchen items. We are being asked to buy these products and a portion of the sales will go for “research” for breast cancer. That amounts to probably a penny on a dollar for most of these manufacturers. There is even a key chain “Thingamaboob” for sale. It represents the different sizes of lumps. Not sure what moron designed that. Anything to turn a profit from some ones grief.

Christine Applegate has been on Oprah, and is telling the world through the media, that she is “cured”. She had a bilateral mastectomy and a hysterectomy, and an oophorectomy. Ms. Applegate carries the BRCA (breast cancer gene mutation, and that is why she decided to have the surgery. She will not have chemotherapy, or radiation, due to the fact that she is “cured”. There is a distinct possibility that Ms. Applegate has triple negative breast cancer, as 80%-85% of BRCA carriers have that diagnosis.

I would like to rename October Breast Cancer Misinformation Month.

THERE IS NO CURE FOR CANCER! If there was, 183,000 women would not be diagnosed with BC every year and 40,000 would not be dying here in the United States alone. One person every 60 seconds would not be dying somewhere in the world from cancer! Ms. Applegate and her entourage need to stop feeding the public this lie. Women all over the world are outraged at her statements. Any person ever diagnosed with cancer is outraged!

Last year our daughter, (age 45 then), had an ultrasound and was told that she had a breast fibrodenoma cyst. It was not a cyst, as they discovered during the surgery. She was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer in June 2007. She then had a mastectomy at Magee Women’s Hospital.

Our daughter never smoked, drank, not even coffee, has been exercising for over 25 years, was in a triathlon 3 years ago, and led a very healthy lifestyle. Cancer does not discriminate.

She had 6 chemotherapy treatments, 1 every 3 weeks, consisting of Adriamyicin, aka “the red devil”, Cytoxan and Taxotere. All 3 drugs, every chemo. Our daughter had that poison infused in her veins, which almost collapsed, because there is no cure. She then had 28 radiation treatments. Because there is no cure Did you know that the radiation could cause more cancer? While on chemo, she took many other meds to off set the side effects of the chemo, (because there is no cure), which in turn have side effects.

She lost all the hair on her body, everything that she ate tasted like metal, and through many of the treatments, she was very ill. She now has neuropathy in her feet, has lost her eyelashes/eyebrows, 4 times, and probably will be feeling the side effects of chemotherapy for many years. However, she goes to work every day, and with the exception of chemo day and 2 days after, she went to work through all her treatments. Triple Negative breast cancer is a very aggressive cancer. There is no specific treatment for TNBC. This is a cancer not driven by hormones as most breast cancers. Patients receive the same chemo regimens as for BC positive. However, TNBC patients cannot take the new drugs on the market for after chemo, as can the BC positive women.

They say “the cure is close”. They lie. They are no closer to a cure now than they were 60 years ago. You can lick all the lids you want, buy all the pink items you choose, and just a tiny portion of those sales go for research. One foundation in particular gives only 20% of their donations to research. If you really want to help someone diagnosed with cancer, help that one person. Do their shopping, do their laundry, care for their children, scrub their toilet, cook their meals once a week for a year. When that year has passed, and after the horrible poison has affected every part of their body, just be there for them. Do not tell them that they will be fine. No one has that assurance, because there is no cure! They say that many people die from the chemotherapy as it causes your body to become malnourished.

“They” tell you that if you have a positive outlook that will help cure you. Really?

If you want to learn more about Triple Negative Breast Cancer, I would invite you to read the posts on the TNBC Foundation site. Read the posts of over 1000 members. Read the posts of the gals with Stage IV cancer, metastasis, second time around gals, and hear what they have to say about Ms. Applegate and “the cure”. See what they have to say about those who tell you that, “cancer is a gift“!

My maternal grandmother died of ovarian cancer when my Mother was 9 years old in 1922 and still there is no cure for ovarian cancer. Our grandson was diagnosed with leukemia at age 3, and went through 3 years of chemotherapy. He is now 20. There is no cure for leukemia. This family has seen all the cancer we ever want to see, and we know there is no cure, nor are they even close to finding a cure. If our government will not fund stem cell research, the “cure” will be probably 100 years from now. The pharmaceuticals are making a killing from the chemotherapy drugs, and if a cure was discovered that would cut into their profits big time. They have no reason to push for a cure. Just more drugs will be manufactured to attempt to kill the cancer cells, but never to find the cause or the cure.