Woman copes with rare breast cancer that's unresponsive to common drugs
11:18 a.m. Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Three weeks out of every month, Cheryl Reed receives chemotherapy for her second bout of an aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of breast cancer called "triple negative."
"I was re-diagnosed with the cancer having spread to my liver, lungs and my chest wall," she said.
Women with triple negative breast cancer lack three hormone receptors known to fuel most breast cancer tumors, which means many of the most common drugs don't work.
Friend2Friend Breast Cancer Awareness
49 News has partnered with Lawrence Memorial Hospital to encourage you to adopt measures that lead to early detection. One in eight women is affected with breast cancer. Get more statistics and learn how you can protect yourself at 49abcnews.com/friend2friend. There you can also sign up to be reminded when it's time to do self breast exams and get breast cancer stories emailed to your inbox. Check it out.
"The reason why triple negative breast cancer is worrisome is one, we don't know the risk factors for it, two, we don't know how best to screen for it and three, we don't know how best to treat it," said Dr. Funmi Olopade said.
Olopade was at the forefront of identifying triple negative breast cancer and determined the disease is most common among young, African-American and Hispanic women, especially those born with a certain rare gene mutation.
"We know that women with a family history of breast cancer who have a BRCA-1 mutation are most at risk," Olopade said.
However, researchers admit they still don't know a lot about this disease, which makes early detection so important.
Reed was diagnosed early and is responding well to treatment.
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)