Race For The Cure... For You!

Lisa Tremp Urrutia:

Today I pay tribute to Melissa Stukenborg Paskvan. Melissa and I have never met in person. I was told of her situation by her mother-in-law Barbara Purney. Barb shared with me her concern of Melissa's Triple Negative breast cancer diagnosis and I immediately said a couple years ago... "I will run the race in honor of Melissa". Melissa and I soon became friends thru FB and guess what we learned? Not only are we friends thru our mutual love of her MIL (and my friend) Barb, but we also have mutual friends thru Eleanor Simon Sedluk and Claudia Vercellotti. How is that for the 6 degrees of separation in Toledo Ohio? Melissa has a smile that shines and captures the essence of her personality! She is a devoted mom, wife, DIL, friend, and breast cancer advocate. Her blog and honesty about breast cancer is inspiring. Melissa I participate in the Race for the Cure... for you!

This is Lisa's team in 2009 honoring me shortly after my diagnosis. Pictured here in the pink hat is Jenelle Sullivan who had passed away over the summer from Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I met Jenelle through our local breast cancer support group at The Victory Center.
Thank you, Lisa
xoxox Melissa

   Loss of a local TNBC Sister...

Jenelle Sullivan, age 55, passed away Monday, July 9, 2012, at Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Toledo. Jenelle was born April 5, 1957, in Royal Oak, MI to Vern and Mary Ann Wiersma. She and her husband, James, ran Sullivan's Crown and Bridge, a dental lab business.  The family would like to thank everyone involved in helping Jenelle through her 14 year battle with breast cancer, especially Hospice of Northwest Ohio.

We continue to fight for you, Jenelle!

Triple-Negative/Inflammatory Breast Cancer Patient Reacts To MD Anderson's Moon Shots Program

My TNBC sister, Terry Arnold, inflammatory breast cancer and triple-negative breast cancer patient at MD Anderson, shares her thoughts on MD Anderson's Moon Shots Program. For more information visit http://cancermoonshots.org.

The Moment You Think About Giving Up...

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Discussions At ASCO 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium

Several presentations last week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco addressed important questions in triple-negative breast cancer: Are there promising new treatment approaches for these breast cancer patients, and how can we identify which patients are high risk?
http://www.cancernetwork.com/conference-reports/asco2012/breast-cancer-symposium/content/article/10165/2103122
(Click link for full story)

Tissue Around Tumor Holds Key To Fighting Triple Negative Breast Cancer

"Researchers found that decorin, a well-studied protein known to help halt tumor growth, induces a series of tumor suppressor genes in the surrounding tissue of triple negative breast cancer tumors that help stop metastasis..."
http://blog.kimmelcancercenter.org/?p=3394 
(Click link for full story)

Genome Project Links Breast And Ovarian Cancers

"Among the most striking findings: One of the most lethal types of breast cancer is genetically closer to a kind of ovarian cancer than it is to other breast tumors..." 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012/09/23/genome-project-links-breast-and-ovarian-cancers/57831816/1 (Click link for story)

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Included In MD Anderson "Moon Shots" Program Against Cancer

MD Anderson Cancer Center sets to begin new "Moon Shost" program in February 2013, targeting 8 specific kinds of cancer including Triple Negative Breast Cancer and Ovarian Cancer which both share similar genetic causes. MD Anderson has committed to spend $3 billion dollars in an effort to finding cures and lower deaths over the next 10 years of breast and ovarian, lung, prostate, melanoma, and 3 types of leukemia

http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/news-releases/2012/ut-md-anderson-cancer-center-launches-unprecedented-moon-shots-program.html (Click link for full story)

Breast and ovarian cancer GOALS

• Increase the five-year survival rate of women with triple-negative breast cancer or high-grade serous ovarian cancer
• Identify women and families at risk for these cancers and implement programs to decrease the chance they will develop cancer
• Change the upfront treatment to improve the outcomes of women with these cancers
• Within the first year, implement clinical trials of promising new therapies
• Develop new imaging technologies that can detect aggressive lethal breast tumors at an early stage
• Convert temporary responses to durable therapy by identifying and targeting drug resistance mechanisms

http://cancermoonshots.org/moon-shots/breast-ovarian/ (Click link for full story)

TLR9 Protein Predicts Survival In Triple Negative Breast Cancer

"Katri Selander, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology, found that the absence of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), a protein that detects microbial DNA, predicts poor survival in triple negative breast cancer. The paper also offers new clues to the ways in which TLR9 influences disease progression."... 
http://www.uab.edu/news/latest/item/2709-tlr9-protein-predicts-survival-in-triple-negative-breast-cancer (click link to full story)

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Introduces "(Un)Common Knowledge", A Webinar Series

This October, in honor of breast cancer awareness month, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation launches (Un)common Knowledge, a Webinar series featuring perspectives on triple negative breast cancer.
This series will be audience-driven, crafted in response to your most pressing questions, which you will have an opportunity to submit in advance. Raise your hand and join us!

Meet our first (Un)Common Knowledge Presenter - Patricia Prijatal

Oct 16, 2012 at 1 PM (ET)

After her diagnosis of hormone-negative breast cancer in 2006, health writer and journalism professor Patricia Prijatel started investigating the disease: how it occurs, how it's treated, and how to keep it from recurring. She found that much of the research on breast cancer, and much of what was written in the popular media, focused on the more common form, hormone-positive. Yet, as she dug through medical journals, she learned that research was just starting on a newly defined disease, triple-negative breast cancer. Research on TNBC was in its infancy, having started in 2005.

Believing that she was learning things that might help other women, Pat began writing a blog, Positives About Negative, to share her knowledge. It became clear that nobody else was writing about TNBC, so in 2008, she began writing a book. Because of her academic background, she knew how to read and interpret research reports. Because of her background in journalism, she knew how to translate that research into everyday language. And because of her background with hormone-negative breast cancer, she knew what women wanted and needed-information, perspective, clarity, and hope.

It took her four years of poring through hundreds of research studies to produce Surviving Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

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WE WILL BE ACCEPTING QUESTIONS FOR PATRICIA THROUGH SEPTEMBER 24, 2012.

Please email questions to knowledge@tnbcfoundation.org. Questions that are succinct, and apply to more than one individual have a better chance of being included, as it may not be possible to address e
http://www.tnbcfoundation.org/uncommonknowledge_prijatel.htm (click to link)

The Prodigal Daughter: The Tsunami Called Breast Cancer - Dedicated With ...

 A beautiful post dedicated to Tracy (RIP), me and her other pink sisters The Prodigal Daughter: The Tsunami Called Breast Cancer - Dedicated with  
(Click link to story)
"...We find ourselves continuing our walk, how odd that I’ve never known this woman before – yet we are sisters. She reaches out to give my hand a sisterly squeeze that says, “You are not alone.” I squeeze her’s back. We don’t know where we are going, or why we are here. But we keep walking..."

Thank you Kelly Richards, love you lots, my special sister xoxox

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Sister, Lisa Lee Runs Komen's San Francisco's Race For The Cure 2012

My Triple Negative Breast Cancer sister, Lisa Lee was chosen to be Komen's San Francisco Race for the Cure's cover this year. This is the first year Komen's SF cover featured a TNBC survivor. Lisa Lee proudly ran Race for the Cure with her team, Perfectly Pink Platoon (P3) on September 9, 2012. In 2011, Lisa's team was the fastest, largest (87 members) and highest fundraising of $15, 246.
You can read more about Lisa and her fight on her web site, Adventures of Triple Negative: http://adventuresoftripleneg.blogspot.com/  or
http://www.facebook.com/AdventuresOfTripleNeg

Komen's Survivor Breakfast 2012- Maumee, OH.

Melissa, Diane, Judi, Rita, Colleen, Elaine and Sandy

Me (far left) and my pink sisters from The Victory Center at the Komen's Survivor Breakfast. Three of us are Triple Negative Breast Cancer Survivors. Love my sisters.

VOTE 4 TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION IN "CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING".

My Friends, Family and supporters: Please vote for my cause, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation to help win them a grant: Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation is dedicated only to this destructive form of breast cancer and is investing in research to speed the quest for a targeted therapy. Check the short video out: http://vid.ly/e8r0e8. and vote for us in Chase Community Giving! 
Thank you, Melissa, TNBC Survivor
You can vote for us on facebook using this link:
 http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charity/view/ein/20-5880756?ref=e5173666bb 

or by clicking on "Chase Community Giving" below and if you are a Chase 

customer, you can vote a second time using your online log-in information.

For my sisters that are still fighting, 

my sisters that fear recurrence and 

those sisters that I lost this past year, 

please VOTE! 

Eat More Greens...

Click on photo to enlarge

... Add them in your smoothie or juicer!