Broadcast and print media have been heralding breakthroughs in breast cancer research at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium this week. The Oncotype DX test can help determine treatment for women with DCIS, they say. Yay! BUT: The Oncotype DX test only works with hormone-postive disease, not hormone-negative, including triple-negative.
Strike one for a breakthrough for the TNBC women.
And zoledronic acid (Zometa) increases breast cancer survivorship. Yay! Oh, wait, that’s for hormone-positive disease.
Strike two for TNBC women.
If we get one more strike, are we out?
This would be less frustrating if media reports would clarify that these advances apply to some types of breast cancer but not all. Lumping all of our lumps together is just confusing, frustrating, and wrong. We get our hopes up, only to spend hours looking for the research and finding that it does not include TNBC benefits.
OK, that’s all. Just a little rant here.