Triple Negative Breast Cancer, "I Won't Back Down!": Remembering Triple Negative Breast Cancer Sister, Kathleen Good...

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.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Remembering Triple Negative Breast Cancer Sister, Kathleen Good...

Kathleen L. Good, age 53
Diagnosed January 2012
Recurrence April 2013
Departed May 21, 2014

Rest Peacefully Kathleen Good

Diagnosed January 2012, Stage 2b, Lumpectomy, chemo, rads
April 2013- Recurrence with a 1cm. mets to liver and a derma-metastasis across the chest. About 1 month after celebrating 1yr "cancer free", started getting little skin bumps (skin mets) across chest and a tumor had returned to the same breast had surgery on. Ct scan then also showed a liver met.
June 2013- Liver met has shrunk 90% after just 6wks on Xeloda, Methotrexate and Vinovelbine
Dec 2013- The clinical trial I was on (for a PARP inhibitor) did nothing for me. The cancer has grown in my liver and now there are 3 spots. It has also grown in my spine and spread to my hip.
Had no genetic mutations at all, but the cancer mutated giving me BRCA 1 and 2, pi3k and some others. When they sampled the biopsy of my recurrence, that was when the mutations were discovered. When first diagnosed and tested- I had no genetic mutations.
Kathleen was a part of our TNBC Sisters group and has always been very supportive of all of us.
Link to Kathleen's Good's Obituary: http://www.curnowfuneralhome.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2535984&fh_id=10210