Triple negative with brain mets

Gosh, what a journey you are on, so sorry to hear about your brain mets - it must be so hard to comprehend, especially when you had such a good response to treatment. I send you all the luck and strength to beat this! There is a young British lady called Fran Whitfield who was stage 4 with brain and liver mets and miraculously is NED since last year (2 years after her initial diagnosis). She has a website and is active on social media: https://franwhitfield.com/

Thank you so much for this.   It really helps to read her story.  I so appreciate you taking the time to reply.  I am very grateful.  

Hi HMac,

I was diagnosed with Stage 3, Grade 3 Triple Negative Breast Cancer on 3rd December 2021. I had a 14cm tumour and my lymph nodes were affected. I had 4 months of weekly chemo (Carboplatin and Paclitaxel - spelling may be wrong!) then 3 cycles of 3 weekly EC. The EC gave me neutropenic sepsis each time, but I was determined to complete the chemo. I then had a bilateral mastectomy and lymph nodes removed on 28th June. It was my right breast that was affected but I opted for a bilateral mastectomy. I was told I had a complete pathological response, but as there were a few cancer cells found in one of the removed lymph nodes, I had 3 weeks of daily radiotherapy. That ended in September.

I found out last Friday I have one small brain Mets in the right hemisphere. I am gutted, but not surprised due to my symptoms. I have blurred vision, weakness in my left hand etc. I had a CT scan yesterday to see if it has spread elsewhere. My Oncology team met yesterday to discuss my case and the Neuro team are meeting in the morning to review my CT and see what can be done. I hope something can be done. I am a single mum to an 11yr old son and will take any and every treatment, trial, option available to me. They have discussed surgery may be an option as it is one small tumour, but it depends what the Neuo team say. The Oncology team also mentioned CyberKnife could be an option too. Thankfully, my hospital has the machine to do it.

I am guessing as you have had your ovaries and fallopian tubes removed you have the BRCA genes? I don't have them. Apparently,  I am just unlucky!

I really wish you all the best with your treatment. You are not alone. We've kicked it's ass once, we can do it again. We have to remain hopeful. Treatments are advancing all the time. I desperately want to beat the odds and be around for my son. Fingers crossed we both get through this. Feel free to contact me xxx