Breast Cancer Recurrence - Treatments?

No idea really , treatment should be planned for the individual , but you might find someone in the same situation in the secondary group here , or the breast cancer care secondary thread...they sre quite active 

best wishes 

Sorry to hear it’s recurred.  I can see from your profile you were on a trial.  Was it picked up as part of that?

xx

Hi Grogg, yes it was picked up on the trial. They found circulating tumour DNA in my bloodstream. No sign of it on the mammogram or physical examination but CT and then ultrasound for a biopsy confirmed it’s come back. I guess hopefully a silver lining that it’s been detected very early. I really thought I might have beaten it but it’s like a weed in the garden, just won’t go!  Thanks for your message, I’ll try the secondary group. 

hi Run4it

I find that news quite exciting, I know you're probably still cursing it but the circulating tumour cells research was going on at the Royal Marsden when I was being treated back in 2015 / 2016 and I felt everyone should have that test after the treatment finished to send you off with a clean bill of health and give you a benchmark to refer to, perhaps alongside a questionnaire on general health and wellbeing. 

All I got was, that's it, bye, have a nice life. See you in a year for your mammogram. 

It is reassuring to see that it is at least being used in a trial and in your case has proven successful in identifying cells. 

This is really good news.

I am right in thinking that simply finding circulating cells doesn't necessarily indicate an advanced diagnosis? You said recurrence but you also posted in the secondary group. 

I suppose with this new technology available they might need to update their criteria ?

As I understood it even if I had had circulating cells they would need to settle somewhere to form a tumour to be identified and then classified, as would have always been the case prior to this breakthrough. 

I would have thought, and you'll be in a position to know or ask, would another round of a systemic treatment be the next course of action?

I can see you had carboplatin from your profile and then Capecitabine, but I can imagine them offering the standard first line agents again, EC and T. Bit of a pain in the rear but you can handle it, you did before !

Will they then do another CTC test to see the blood results ? It's not like they can measure a tumour this time is it. 

Do you know if you're the first triple negative patient to be identified in this way?  

I often tell people on here that new treatments and diagnostics are being developed all the time but mostly it's to calm people down, this is real evidence that this has been trialed and implemented and I can witness it.

I wish I had a medal for you but I can see you want action and information.  try this.  It's not precisely what you're looking for but it might help with the questions for your next appointment. ??

hugs

Carolyn

xxxxx

www.cancerresearchuk.org/.../triple-negative-breast-cancer

"Trials for advanced triple negative breast cancer

Trials are comparing different types of chemotherapy to see which are better at treating advanced disease. For example, researchers are waiting for the results of the Triple Negative Trial (TNT) to find out whether it is better to use carboplatin or docetaxel. 

Research is looking at using targeted cancer drugs alongside other treatments. For example, a trial is using a drug called atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy. Some trials are testing a drug called pembrolizumab. Researchers think that these targeted drugs on their own might help to control the growth of the cancer."