what is tnbc?
 A note from friend Courtney Elmendorf Faust:
When I found out that Colette's cancer had metastasized, I knew I had to do something to help. Being in Boulder and so far from Colette in Portland, Oregon I couldn't take her kids for a day, bring her dinners or just sit and talk. I wanted to raise money to find a cure so that Colette can plan my daughter's wedding - OH, and live her life with her children and husband for years to come. We looked into various multiple day fundraiser walks but that money wouldn't go directly to triple negative breast cancer research so we decided we should hold our own fundraiser and give it directly to the folks looking for a cure.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Triple negative breast cancer refers to a specific subtype of breast cancer that does not express the genes for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) or Her2/neu. This subtype of breast cancer is clinically characterised as more aggressive and less responsive to standard treatment and associated poorer overall patient prognosis. It is diagnosed more frequently in younger women, women with BRCA1 mutations, and those belonging to African-American and Hispanic ethnic groups, and those having a recent birth.
Triple negative breast cancers have, on average, significantly higher fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake (measured by the SUVmax values) compared with uptake in ER+/PR+/HER2- tumors using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). It is speculated that enhanced glycolysis in these tumors is probably related to their aggressive biology.
Triple negative breast cancers are themselves a subgroup of "basal-type" breast cancers. As triple-negative breast cancers make up the overwhelming majority of this subgroup, what limited data that is available typically deals with triple-negative breast cancers.
Click here for more info from breastcancer.org
Click here for more info from tnbcfoundation.org
"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."
-- C.C. Scott
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