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.
I am beyond thrilled to finally meet my very special Triple Negative Breast Cancer Sister, Vickie Roy-Sneedon a few weeks back on July 29, 2015. Vickie was one of the first TNBC ladies that I first connected with online in the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Support Group over 5 years ago and have kept in contact since. That was back in the day when I was newly diagnosed searching for other women who shared the same TNBC subtype of breast cancer that I did and only found very few as TNBC was a fairly new type of breast cancer that was discovered in 2005. I quickly learned that Vickie and I had a lot in common, being TNBC; we both participated in a TNBC Foundation awareness video; we both loved cats and we both had a Tortoiseshell cat and a longhair black cat AND... though Vickie lives in Australia now for the last several years, we are both from OHIO!
