New Group - Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)

Hello members,

If you have been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) or supporting someone with this breast cancer type, you may have asked whether we have a private group available for people. Currently we do not have a dedicated group, however there appears to be growing demand for this and we want to create the conversation:

Please provide feedback as to whether you feel you or someone diagnosed with TNBC would benefit from having access to an Online Network private group (Please leave your comment in this discussion thread)

What is Triple Negative Breast Cancer?

Triple negative breast cancer is the name given to breast cancer that is:

• oestrogen receptor negative (ER-)
• progesterone receptor negative (PR-) and
• HER2 negative (HER2-).

This means that the cancer does not use oestrogen, progesterone or HER2 to grow. So this means that drugs used to treat these types of breast cancer are not effective for triple negative breast cancer. Around 15% of early breast cancers are triple negative. 

The main treatment for triple negative breast cancer is chemotherapy. It is important to know that chemotherapy can be very effective in treating triple negative breast cancer.

While anyone can get triple negative breast cancer, it is more common in people who:

• have an inherited BRCA gene mutation (particularly BRCA1)
• are under the age of 40
• have not reached menopause.

Unfortunately triple negative breast cancers tend to be more aggressive than other types of breast cancer. There are several sub-types of triple negative breast cancer, the most common being, a cell type called basal-like. Basal-like means that the cells resemble the basal cells that line the breast ducts. Basal-like cancers tend to be more aggressive, higher grade cancers. Read more via the My Journey article Triple negative breast cancer