Triple Negative Breast Cancer: What treatments are you having?

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.

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I agree….at 80 I wouldn't try chemo or radiation either. I would fear the treatment would kill me faster than the cancer.

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I agree….at 80 I wouldn't try chemo or radiation either. I would fear the treatment would kill me faster than the cancer.

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I was diagnosed with invasive carcinoma, triple negative breast cancer in January. I had a lumpectomy in February. I had clear margins and clear lymph nodes. Because I am 80 years old I didn't feel it was right for me to get chemo or radiation. The study which I read ( JAMA Oncology) suggesting treatment, were done on much younger women (average age 51).

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May I ask what your age is? My decision would be different if I were younger and hadn’t had clear lymph nodes.

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TNBC is a beast! I would do both chemo and rads! I am dealing with a reoccurrence and started chemo again today 🙏🏼

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I was diagnosed with invasive carcinoma, triple negative breast cancer in January. I had a lumpectomy in February. I had clear margins and clear lymph nodes. Because I am 80 years old I didn't feel it was right for me to get chemo or radiation. The study which I read ( JAMA Oncology) suggesting treatment, were done on much younger women (average age 51).

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Frozen liquid is just soothing for some reason. I had food poisoning once, which caused severe vomiting. The doctor prescribed something and told me to try eat a Popsicle (sugared not artificially sweetened) every 4 hours to see if I could keep it down. When I could eat one without vomiting, wait a full hour and drink 1/2 cup of cool, bland soup. If that stayed down, eat more a half hour later and slowly return to eating normally.

I freeze the most ginger-y gingerale I can find in paper cups and always have some in the freezer.

The Angostura bitters and a small amount of sugar get added to club soda to drink anytime my stomach starts to get uneasy. That was a writer's suggestion from a trip abroad. Europeans rely on 'bitters' to help calm cranky tummies a lot I infer.

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I was diagnosed with invasive carcinoma, triple negative breast cancer in January. I had a lumpectomy in February. I had clear margins and clear lymph nodes. Because I am 80 years old I didn't feel it was right for me to get chemo or radiation. The study which I read ( JAMA Oncology) suggesting treatment, were done on much younger women (average age 51).

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