Wife just informed she has triple negative breast cancer

Hi - They usually give chemo before radiotherapy - so she may be off the hook for that. Especially if you mean 13mm?? The stage and grade are also important in that decision. Breast Cancer Now has useful booklets (online and to buy) including one specifically for partners.

Hello Mick,  oh this is hard news to get and process for sure.  TNBC is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that lacks certain receptors like estrogen, progesterone and Her2.  Treatments usually are chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.  The tumor is large (13cm) so imagine a mastectomy would be the operation.  Hearing all this is hard but once you have a plan in place you and your wife can move forward.  Another option is to check and see about clinical trials being offered and her Doctors can help but I think you can check online too.  I live in US so don’t know about your health system.  
if your wife is young they may check for BRCA gene.  I wish you both the best and you will be the rock for your wife.  Getting through everything is a challenge but doable.  There will be many women in this site that will give you personal advice.  

Thanks Theresa I'll take a look at the booklets and i have corrected my transposition.  

Oh 13mm is much better than 13cm so your wife should have surgical choices.  Ignore my post that said mastectomy as that was for the 13cm.  

Hi Mick

I’m sorry you and your wife have this to deal with - it’s very shocking when you first get the news.

There’s a great deal to take in at that diagnosis meeting so if you’re in any doubt at all, you should call your assigned Breast Cancer Nurse to ask all the questions you have. I believe everyone who is diagnosed is given someone they can contact.

If it’s Triple Negative, from what I learnt whilst going through my own treatment, I’d be surprised if she’s not being offered chemotherapy, but I am not an expert!

Having said that, I’ve been through surgery, chemo and radiotherapy and I’d like to encourage you that the treatment was nowhere near as bad as I feared. It’s not a lot of fun - but it is very doable. It feels like a mountain when you first hear about it, but you get through it 

 Best wishes to you both

Thank.you for your reply.Susan and your words of encouragement.  

Just a quick update after Lorraine's surgery on Tuesday. She is taking pain killers every six hours and other than a few niggles she is not in to much pain. On Wednesday.she woke up with a hacking cough but after speaking to her BCN she thought this was normal but if she had any  chest discomfort or breathlessness to go to A&E.   The cough got worse over  the day so we aired on the side of caution and went to A&E.   They did an xray and blood tests and t said they would treat it as if it was a blood clot and  go back on Thursday for a CT scan.  Results did not show any clots or infection on her lungs.   However the scan did highlight inflammation in the opposite breast she had surgery on so they have sent the report to her consultant for him to investigate further.   She needs to have a wound check on the 17th and obtains her results on the 25th.   

I have TNBC. My lump was a bit bigger at 16mm at assessment and 18mm when I actually had surgery. At the initial appointment they said surgery first, radiotherapy definite and chemo tbc depending on the surgery pathology. I got clear margins from surgery and the 4 lymph nodes they sampled were clear, but they did recommend chemo. I think the key things driving my recommendation were the grade of the cancer - it was a grade 3 - plus the pathology also showed vascular invasion at the tumour site, which is another risk factor.

This is my general understanding. Chemo (and immunotherapy if appropriate) is given before surgery for TNBC tumours over 2cm or where lymph node involvement is suspected. For smaller tumours, surgery comes first. Chemo isn’t given for tumours up to 5mm but between 5mm and 2cm it will depend on grade and pathology. If she has a grade 2 I don’t think she will be offered chemo unless other things pop up in the pathology. If she is offered chemo it will take place before radiotherapy. 

I hope the inflammation in the other breast isn’t anything to worry about. All the best for the results. 

Thank you for your reply and from what I have read  (reliable sites only) that Lorraine's will receive full diagnost and treatment plan when she sees surgeon on the 25th.   We are hoping that the inflammation is just fluid filled cysts which Lorraine has suffered from since she was 22 ( now 58).   If not I am assuming that she will need to follow the same tests path from the start of the year.