What is TNBC
WHAT IS TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER?
Just in recent years, Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) has sparked interest in the news where instead of calling the tumor as ER-negative, PR-negative, and HER2-negative; researchers began using the shorthand term, "Triple Negative," dubbed the "new type" of breast cancer. Being Triple Negative, you don't have a targeted therapy and your only treatment option is chemotherapy.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer is seen in about 15% of all breast cancers. TNBC is a very aggressive cancer that tends to strike younger women, pre-menopause, especially among African-American women and women who have BRCA1 mutations. The tumor tends to be fast growing and is less likely to show up on an annual mammogram. TNBC is more likely to metastasis early on; has a high rate of recurrence in the first 2-3 years from diagnosis and has a poorer prognosis than other types of breast cancer due to lack of specific, targeted treatment for TNBC.
Evelyn Lauder, founder of the pink ribbon campaign, has passed on November 12, 2011 from nongenetic ovarian cancer diagnosed in 2007. Lauder was a former executive of Estee Lauder Cosmetics and daughter-in-law to it's founder Estee Lauder. Best known for her advocacy for women's health after battling breast cancer herself in 1989, Evelyn Lauder and a friend, Self magazine editor, Alexandra Penney launched the pink ribbon campaign in 1992 at department store's Estee Lauder make-up counters with handing out pink ribbon bows to women to remind them of breast exams. At a time when talking about breast cancer was taboo, creating the pink ribbon symbol for breast cancer health led to the designation of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In 1993, Lauder went on to establish the Breast Cancer Research Foundation that has raised more than $350 million to help fight this disease.
