Stage 2 Grade 3 TNBC

Hi Dee162 

I was diagnosed with TNBC two years ago and, like you, had surgery followed by chemo and radiotherapy and I'm now on 6 monthly zoledronic acid.

I had 3 cycles of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (EC), which was given once every 3 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of paclitaxel.

Obviously everyone's treatment plan is tailormade for them so you might not have the same type or frequency as me.

Hi

Thank you for that, how much radiotherapy did you have.  I hope you are doing well now x it’s such a rollercoaster ride.  I still don’t think it’s actually sunk in yet that I have cancer, I think it will hit me when I start the chemo treatment xx

I'm very well thanks Dee162 .

I had 10 daily sessions of radiotherapy. The first 5 were to the whole breast and the second 5 aimed at just the tumour bed.

This sounds similar to my situation. I was diagnosed in November 2023 with a 2.6cm tumour. Had surgery in December. Fortunately no node involvement.  Then had 4 cycles of EC followed by 12 weekly paclitaxel and 3weekly carboplatin. I also had  London acid every 6 weeks while having chemo to then be followed by every 6 months for 3 years. I then had 5 sessions of radiotherapy. Everything seems very daunting at 1st but strangely it seems easier once you have a treatment plan and get started. In total the chemo and radiotherapy took 6 months. Hope this helps but every one is different and every oncologist seems to have a different way of approaching things. Good luck. Keep strong   You can do this 

Hello, 

I was diagnosed in June 2024 with TNBC. At the time it was thought to be stage I, grade 2 but I had a bilateral skin sparing mastectomy in August 2024 and it was found in one lymph node so it was recategorised as stage II, grade 3. The tumor was 1.5 cm.

I had 4 cycles of Adriamycin and Cytoxan (thinking that might be the same as “EC”? In the States we call it “AC”) 

I’m now a quarter of the way through a 12 week regimen of weekly Taxol which I think is the same as Paclitaxel. After that I’ll have 28 daily radiation treatments.

After that’s over with my oncologist is suggesting a yearly course of an oral Parp inhibitor called Olaparib. 

I think my reconstruction surgery will be around November ‘25 after my skin has healed from the radiotherapy. 

It’s a long haul, isn’t it? Hopefully in years to come (praying we have many healthy years to come without recurrence), this will just be a blip on the roadmap of life.

Chemo drug nerd here.  The E in EC = epirubicin. Adriamycin (the A in the US’s AC) is the brand name for doxorubicin. A similar but not identical drug with the same mechanism of action, the differences in usage are mostly to do with which drug got regulatory approval first in each geography.. AC is sometimes used in the UK but we mostly see EC. 

Thanks for the explanation!