Triple Negative Breast Cancer: What treatments are you having?

Apparently my chemo combo of Gemzar and Carboplatin - the biggest side effects is nausea and constipation plus low platelets with low red & white cells. Does anyone know of any foods that could help? Thanks

There are also NCCN guidelines, which one oncologist I saw referred to that don't exactly recommend no radiation for older women with low-stage cancer lumpectomies but suggest that skipping it be considered a viable, accepted protocol.

I kidded my breast surgeon, asking if this is just another economic triage idea (as recommended by Ezekial Emmanual and Cass Sunstein who advocate severely cutting funding for health care for the elderly) and she laughed, being in her late 50s.

And said that it's more a function of three things: there is very, very little data in breast cancer in older women since, until recently, routine mammograms in their case were not even offered; breast cancers in the elderly tend be less virulent and grow considerably more slowly; and the majority of women in that age group have comorbities and other health issues that can increase the risks of poorer outcomes.

She added that a lot of healthy active women also concentrate more on quality of life ("remaining years') issues and are far less likely to willingly tolerate side effects of various treatments.

All of that makes sense to me, variables that affect younger womens' decisions are viewed differently by older women with maybe a differing package of responsibilities.

I can only tell you what my experiences were with chemo that had these same side effects. There was not the effective drugs for nausea that they have now. So that was a bigger problem. The constipation became a huge problem and continued for years after my initial chemo. If you can stomach it, whole grain oatmeal every day will help this, it might or might not be enough. I now mix up whole grain rolled oats and milk and kefir, add some blueberries and a touch of honey, I refrigerate over night and eat cold in the morning.
You can ask your oncology doctor for a consult with a nutritionist specializing in oncology if there is one in your area. They will have more tips and tricks for you to use. How are you feeling after your first treatment?

I’m 73 and was diagnosed with triple negative 7 years ago. It is a very aggressive cancer. I have no signs of my cancer returning. I would listen to my doctor if I was diagnosed at 80. My mother lived to be 95, so if I felt healthy at 80, I would do chemo again, maybe one of the newer drugs.

Sorry to hear of your recurrence. I have the same diagnosis and had a mastectomy in Dec. Of course I worry about recurrence and constantly think, when will it be back? Where did yours show up?
In the same area as your lumpectomy?
I wish you well with your treatments and send hugs for better days to come

I am currently taking Xeloda and have been for 6 mos. The hand/foot syndrome has been a big problem for me even though many have much less or no problem. Early on I had much more of a problem but now it is better after a lowering of the dose. I still have pain in feet and hands which starts a week into the two weeks I am on it. It goes away during the following week when I am off of it. My skin peels but less than on higher dosage.

What has worked for me to lessen side effects: take medicine right when you are eating.
Get some light weight gloves ( I got on Amazon).
Get some very good moisturizer preferably with urea in it.
At night lather up your feet and hands with moisturizer and wear socks and gloves over feet and hands.
During the day apply moisturizer a number of times.
After moisturizing I wear socks and athletic shoes and gloves. The gloves help do things that might be too painful otherwise.
Moisturize all the time even when you are on a week off from medicine.
Do not take hot showers or wash hands in hot water.
As always in this journey you also discover other things that help you. It took me several months after starting Xeloda to figure out what works for me.

It is definitely working as my last Petscsn showed no active cancer !

Wishing you all the best!!

For reoccurrences, they usually use Gemzar and Carboplatin and I had my 1st treatment yesterday and it wasn’t too bad.

What type of breast cancer do you have? I’m glad the treatment wasn’t bad for you.

My reoccurrence showed up from my ultrasound not mammogram. It was found in the fibroadipose tissue, localized (1.5cm) and they removed that with my Level 1 and 2 lymph nodes. It was right next to my lumpectomy. Thank you very much🥰

Did they do radiation on that same site after the lumpectomy? It was suggested that I have post-lumpectomy site-specific radiation as a kind of "clean up the area in case of missed cancer cells" but I was past the 6-week optimal time and declined. I was on the fence about it anyway so likely would have declined but this was an ER+, PR+ HER2- tumor, which I understand is a whole different animal.