Triple Negative Breast Cancer, "I Won't Back Down!": Congrats Angelique on your Defense in TNBC Research

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.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Congrats Angelique on your Defense in TNBC Research

"Angelique, I am so impressed with your research in TNBC from your compound discovery to cause cancer cells to burst and flatten, reversing multi-drug resistance in metastatic TNBC when added to existing drugs, no significant changes in toxicity in mice models and reducing size and weight of the tumor. This is huge for us survivors in the TNBC Community. As a 10 year survivor of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, the fear of recurrence is real, all of us survivors fear it. I have seen too many TNBC sisters pass after exhausting many clinical trials and a fierce battle.

I am excited in the direction your research is going, this gives us much hope that this may be our targeted therapy."

June 2019, Angelique has successfully defended her research defense in her doctoral thesis from Dr. Tiwari's lab on ‘Discovery of novel necroptosis inducers for triple negative breast cancer therapy’. Congrats Dr. Angelique on this incredible honor and receiving your PhD. - Melissa