I haven’t updated here for awhile as majority of my day to day life living with triple negative breast cancer is now on Instagram, feel free to jump on that tn_beatingcancer (see below for link).
Yesterday I received some good news from my MRI scan, Gary has gone and can’t be found, below is an update of what this means and where to next.
We’ve made it to the beach and planning on having a relaxing Easter break. Happy Easter everyone.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy: Neoadjuvant therapies are delivered before the main treatment, to help reduce the size of a tumor (mine was 3.5cm), or kill cancer cells that have spread (mine had not spread).
How it works: They place a bio marker in the middle of your tumour before chemo, in the hope that it shrinks so much the surgeon won’t be able to find it! The bio marker is used to pin point exactly where they need to perform a wide local excision (lumpectomy). My MRI confirmed this for me yesterday.
Next Step: The surgeon will go in and perform a wide local excision which involves removing the tumour with a cuff of normal tissue around it to decrease the chance of recurrence (lumpectomy). In other words, take any of Gary’s mates, or as my youngest said, “so you mean Gary’s Mum could still be in there stopping the party, the surgeon will take her”.
Finally: The tissue taken is sent for processing and margin evaluation by a pathologist. If there are no cancer cells detected, it is considered pathological complete response pCR, this is what I’m after. It means your survival chances are increased and more likely that none of Gary’s mates or his Mum return in the future - although it can never be guaranteed. I know some people who did not receive a pCR and living long and healthy lives - everyone’s different!
This is the best outcome and explained in simple terms, however there’s all sorts of other things that might pop up along the way. For now, this is my goal and if anything else happens to get thrown my way, I’ll karate chop it and send it back where it belongs.
Best news, Kate. X