Triple negative stage 2 breast cancer

I believe most oncologists think that a  mastectomy,rather than a lumpectomy is the best option for a good outcome with this type of cancer,but chemotherapy and radiotherapy are still essential to stop any spread.  This must be a shock for you and your family but you must go with what your oncologist has suggested.   

Hi Rachelle,

I'm sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis, but please don't allow the common fear associated with the disease overtake your life. Many people get breast cancer and go on living normally afterwards, brushing off the sad adventure as a typical incident during our physical existences.

I am a perfect example of this, as I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Male Breast Cancer, ER Positive, with 4 cancerous Lymph Nodes among 16 removed during the mastectomy, some 13 years ago. I have follow-ups every year and so far, there is not a trace of cancer in my body. The surgery was a great success and all margins were negative, meaning there was no trace of cancer on the edges of the tissues dissected out of my body.

To answer your questions, yes, a mastectomy is preferable over a lumpectomy as this decreases the chances that some lonely cancer cells, not detectable at this time in your breast, may decide to reorganize and form new tumors after surgery; by removing all adjacent tissues to the tumor, you are improving your chances for the future. The recommendation your doctors will give you on doing chemo, hormone and radio therapies will depend on the presence and number of cancerous lymph nodes detected during and after the surgery. If there are none, your doctors might just say you can do without these extra treatments. However, if there are many positives, they will likely tell you it is a must to start those therapies ASAP, to prevent the cancer from spreading to a vital organ; that is what I was told. However, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to take my chances, learn about and treat myself with natural chemotherapy (which is side-effect-free for the great majority of people), at the great dismay of my doctors who thought I was crazy and might be back in the hospital to receive some very bad news within 6 months of my decision.

So there it is... you can follow your doctors orders, or, if you are brave and want to do things your way and avoid the potentially damaging or fatal effects of current treatments, you can go and read very interesting things on the Internet and make a clear decision afterwards. If you go the natural way, don't expect your doctors to approve your decision, because they will tell you there is not enough scientific evidence to encourage you.

Some cues if you want to learn about natural anti-cancer therapies:

You can type up Indole-3-carbinol, EGCG, Selenium, Turmeric and Bromelaine along with the word Cancer (or Breast Cancer) in your search engine, and maybe you will discover some other options to consider. All these substances are available as pills or tablets you can purchase freely without a prescription, and come from food products such as Broccoli, Green Tea, Nuts and Spices in a concentrated form. Eventhough modern research has many convincing arguments about using these products to prevent or possibly help cure cancer, they are not yet approved as conventional treatments by the mainstream medical community.

Enjoy reading and best of luck!

Greg.

Hi Rachel, I was diagnosed with Invasive ductal cancer 4 years ago. Had chemo first to reduce a 6cm tumour which after 6 rounds of FEC-T had reduced to nothing. Then had Surgery and breast reduction with only 3 lymph nodes removed as a micron was found. Then 20 rounds of Radiotherapy. Mine was ER+ HER2+. You can ask for a second opinion from another surgeon as to whether mastectomy is necessary. I also recommend joining Breast Cancer Care Forum as I met online 45 women going through chemo at the same time. They were a great support and we are all still in touch via a facebook group meeting up annually. We have lost some along the way but you can be sure that we are all a great support to each other even after all this time when it all seems like a bad dream.

 

I have no advice for you as i haven’t been diagnosed yet ( and hopefully not at all ) but with having two young children myself I just wanted to wish you my best .. waiting on results and looking at my kids is bad enough let alone having result . Sending lots of positive vibes your way . May you make a full recovery