Four years have gone by since I was told I had a lesion that needed biopsying. How time flies! Cancer is becoming a smaller and smaller part of my life. On that day though, sheer terror! I could think of nothing else.And the news became worse and worse with each doctor visit.
The chances of recurrence keep dropping. At five years, the chances are very close to zero. Still, not much so far on the horizon for the treatment of TNBC so it better stay away. The PARP inhibitors have not panned out. There is a possibility that anti-androgen compounds may be useful against triple negative cancer. Androgen would be the fourth receptor so there may be a day soon in which BC could be called quadruple negative. 30% of TNBC is androgen positive and there are existing drugs, mainly targeting prostate cancer that could be used. Is mine androgen positive? Who knows? I signed my tumor over to science. It may have been tested.
There was an article the other day on how breast cancer is over-treated, that is chemo is given to patients that might not have needed it. I was told that there was a 50% chance my tumor would go to distal places if I did no chemo which means there was a 50% chance that it would not. I guess in my case that means there was 50% chance I did chemo for no reason. In others cases, chemo gives them even less of an advantage. But until they get a better handle in understanding which tumors are most likely to spread, they should stop stupid articles like that.
Aside from the scars, not much remains of my experience. I do still get these crushing pains in my ribs that scare me but they go away so they are probably not bone mets. It doesn't happen as often as in the past. I assume there is some nerve damage in which pain is perceived even though there is nothing that causes it...neuropathic pain.
I had a gut feeling that I would not survive but here I am. I am lucky.
The chances of recurrence keep dropping. At five years, the chances are very close to zero. Still, not much so far on the horizon for the treatment of TNBC so it better stay away. The PARP inhibitors have not panned out. There is a possibility that anti-androgen compounds may be useful against triple negative cancer. Androgen would be the fourth receptor so there may be a day soon in which BC could be called quadruple negative. 30% of TNBC is androgen positive and there are existing drugs, mainly targeting prostate cancer that could be used. Is mine androgen positive? Who knows? I signed my tumor over to science. It may have been tested.
There was an article the other day on how breast cancer is over-treated, that is chemo is given to patients that might not have needed it. I was told that there was a 50% chance my tumor would go to distal places if I did no chemo which means there was a 50% chance that it would not. I guess in my case that means there was 50% chance I did chemo for no reason. In others cases, chemo gives them even less of an advantage. But until they get a better handle in understanding which tumors are most likely to spread, they should stop stupid articles like that.
Aside from the scars, not much remains of my experience. I do still get these crushing pains in my ribs that scare me but they go away so they are probably not bone mets. It doesn't happen as often as in the past. I assume there is some nerve damage in which pain is perceived even though there is nothing that causes it...neuropathic pain.
I had a gut feeling that I would not survive but here I am. I am lucky.
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