TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP

Regarding Nerlynx - I asked my husband, a physician, to call my MO and ask him about Nerlynx for me. My MO said that everyone in his group was surprised that Nerlynx was approved, that improvement in survival was insignificant comparing to side effects. He said that risks, especially liver toxicity, by far exceeded any benefit in my case. So, it's a 'no' for me. I'm still kinda/sorta wishing I could take it, but I trust my MO more than my limited knowledge.

On the topic of oophorectomy - I've had ovarian cysts for years. My gynecologist kept an eye for them with an ultrasound every few months. After my BC diagnosis, my gynecologist gently suggested that maybe I should consider oophorectomy. My MO said that there was no need to go that route, which made me happy because I really didn't want to get rid of my ovaries, especially since I was BRCA negative. Last year one of my ovaries suddenly ballooned up in a course of 2 months and that scared me enough to have my ovaries and tubes removed. I was upset about it, I wanted to keep my ovaries, but I feel like a decision was made for me by my body.

BB

Hap, statistical significance is a standard mathematical function used to compare outcomes between groups that is used in all studies of this kind. Without statistical significance, the FDA would not have approved it. While I, too, would prefer to use a treatment with a higher degree of statistical significance it doesn’t negate the fact that statistical significance was achieved in this study.

hopelisa, take a deep breathe, you will be fine. My stats are as following ER80%, PR60%, Her2+++. As you can see I am relatively ER positive too. You may also ask for your Ki67%. It is the speed of tumor cell division. Mine is 50%, very high, it means that 50% of cells divide at any point of time. Chemo is effective when Ki67% is around 50% because it kills cells that are in the mitotic process.

With your tumors you, if I understand correctly, are being a borderline for both neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatments. Neoadjuvant is valid for larger tumors when doctors want to shrink the tumor before the surgery. For Her2+ larger tumors chemo is usually given with both Herceptin and Perjeta, another targeted therapy. For smaller tumors they start with lumpectomy and then give you adjuvant chemo with Herceptin only. Chemo regimen may vary between. With neoadjuvant treatment they can see whether treatment is working, with adjuvant treatment there is no way to know whether it does or not. But even if the treatment successfully kills all the tumor cells it does not give you any guarantee. The bad news this is the ugly truth of bc, the good news the treatments are effective. Herceptin has changed the situation for Her2 positive bc and being highly ER% is always better than being ER negative. About the crosstalk between ER and Her2 we need to ask user SpecialK, she is 3+ and has been on this thread from very beginning and possess a lot if knowledge.

Now I feel that I am not being good at pep talk but if you feel insecure please talk to your oncologist and ask him to explain both options for you.

Do not get your anxiety to take over you, easier to say I know, I have been where you are just a few months ago

Cherry

PoseyGirl, I am always up for a good recipe, I am posting on So what’s for dinner thread, I love cooking, soup is something I can eat every day. Right now I have cauliflower bisque in my fridge and I was thinking cooking either ribbolita or borsch tomorrow. If anyone feel for sharing any interesting recipe, please do. I have also been trying to hang on the other sites, a friend has recommended seriouseats.com, I like it very much.

I remember reading a thread, cannot find it now, where a lady posted her complete pathological report and another lady replied to her that her tumor may be resistent to chemo, it was not about being ER or low grade, I did not pay attention to that then and now I cannot find it. I also red that metaplastic tumors are resistent to chemo. pCR is always a good thing, although as they say for some patients it is enough to just remove the tumor, they just do not know for whom and therefore treat everybody.

Waiting for that recipe, I even have fresh chicken broth in my fridge, ready to use in any soup

Cherry

hopelisa, my tumour was highly HR and PR positive. I did neoadjuvant TCHP and had a complete pathological response. With highly hormone positive HER 2 +++ tumours, a PCR is less likely. In addition, a PCR for triple positives does not translate into the same disease free survival rate as a PCR for someone who is only HER2 +.

My MO told me on day one that we were going for a cure. I will tell you the same thing. Ignore any pessimistic predictions of outcomes from your medical team and go for a cure.

Regardless of chemo before or after surgery, the treatment will not be fun and it will be a long year. This board can be a life line. Good luck with your surgery.

I have been reading your posts and I am strongly positive in all areas as is stated in my profile below. I was just at a follow up appointment at my onc who told me I can consider myself basically cured for now...what a relief...:) So ladys we are kind of lucky to have this type of aggressive type of BC considering all the different options of medications for it, yes bad news it can come back but my onc said the track record for this BC are all very good at this point. Being highly ER+ means chemo and pre treatment usually does not achieve PcR (only in 20% of the patients according to my onc) but hormon medication is also highly effective being high in the numbers so that is a good thing.

I am back focusing on starting to exercise and got myself a personal trainer today. She said I should be getting back in a "slowmotion" pace so tomorrow my task is to swim for 20 minutes in a warm water swimmingpool during lunch hour at work...:) I hope there is a separate dressing room..I am not ready to expose my flat side at his moment so getting my special bathing suit geared up for the morning.

Peoy

I had the standard treatment of 6 rounds of Taxotere, Carboplatin, and Herceptin. Then I had 12 rounds of just Herceptin. Each rounds was every 21 days.

Vicky

Kattis, wonderful news and what an incourraging doctor, I would like to meet him too, I have not been to this clinic yet.

Coachvicky, I would still like to reserve a right to rant and vent here, you all are the only people I feel I can open to. My treatment has really worn me down, it is like I only have 1,5 good day now and then it is Monday again. If they would try to convince me not to take EC it will be so easy to do, I just want it to be over at least for chemo part, I do not know how to endure three dd EC, it is taking its toll on me. And this baldness, I did not know hair was such a big deal. Cooked soup and stew for tomorrow, will be off for genetic testing and 11th Taxol.

Cherry

coachvicky, I turned the internet upside down for information and red a lot here as well. I bet I sound different, one will be changed after some time, not because she wants to but because she has to. I wish I had never known anything about it but here I am. I had a breakdown about it to my mom today, asking why me and at this age, I feel so sorry that she has to g through it, and the kids too.

Cherry

So re: the Mexican Soup, Cherry...its so tasty! I don't have a lot of specifics re: exact measurements, but there's a lot of leeway:

- take chicken thighs deboned and deskinned and chop up or dice.

- sprinkle the following spices on the chicken (to your liking): paprika, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, oregano, Tex mex, pepper salt, onion salt, garlic salt

- sautée the chicken and remove

- cut up 2 onions, 1 green pepper (dice) and sautée in the pot. Chop up garlic and throw in as well.

- add in a box (4 cups) of chicken broth. add in 4 cups of water.

- add a can of kernel corn, a can of black beans. Add in the chicken and stir. add in zest of one lime and juice of the one lime.

- add a few dashes of hot sauce (to your taste) and add in a 1/4 cup of cornmeal mixed with a bit of water. Add some red wine vinegar. I threw in 2-3 teaspoons

Voila...Mexican Soup. It's really nice if you cut up avocado and put that in and if you put a dollop of sour cream on top. It's sooo tasty! Those are fried quinoa patties beside the bowl...also very good

Posey - great article, wish we have more good news in the future so we don’t have to do chemo.

I’m not Triple Positive but I lurk here all the time because I found this thread has so much information and love to learn from all of you.

That soup looks GREAT!

VIcky

Hi Coachvicky

Thanks for the hair recommendations will look them up on Amazon. I too feel I would really struggle with no hair so I will give the cold caps and treatments a try - the treatments sound very gentle. I am sure the cold caps must be gruelling so I'll check out the cold caps topic for info.

Thanks Lisa

Hi Cherry,

Those pumpkins aren't real...just picked up at some decor store!

The quinoa patties are easy:

- mix quinoa with beaten eggs, bread crumbs (so if you do one cup of quinoa, use one egg)

- dice any veggies you want - zucchini, carrot, onion, garlic...

- throw in some shredded Parmesan cheese

- spice how you wish!

Mix all together, make into patties and fry!

Kattis,I have a boatload of Netflix shows to suggest that I watched through treatment (and beyond). If anybody wants my list, I can offer it up!

Thank you for the advice!