How can a 68-year-old woman manage stage 3 TNBC?

Question

Hello doctor,

My mom is 68 years old, and her biopsy revealed triple-negative breast cancer. She is in good condition, but this sounds serious. The doctor says it is stage 3, meaning the disease has gone beyond the breast to adjacent tissue or lymph nodes, but not to other regions of the body.

What is her prognosis?
Are there any new treatments?
I have been reading online, and everything looks bleak. Should we seek a second opinion or look into clinical trials?
We are all quite worried. What are the questions we should ask her oncologist?

Kindly help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I can understand your concern.

Thank you for posting your query.

Triple-negative breast cancers are less aggressive forms of breast cancer compared with hormone-positive breast cancers. Stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer needs immunotherapy and chemotherapy, followed by surgery and then radiotherapy. Triple-negative breast cancer usually responds well to immunotherapy and chemotherapy. After completion of treatment, the recurrence rate is almost 45 percent.

Triple-negative breast cancer is more likely to affect younger and premenopausal women because breast cancer gene mutations are also more common in younger and premenopausal women compared with postmenopausal women. These are inherited genetic mutations that increase cancer risk.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Take care.

Thank you.