I\u2019m a nerd.\u00a0 I love to learn about new and interesting things.\u00a0 I get it from my dad I suppose.\u00a0 On family vacations, he and I always stop at each of the marker signs at a point-of-interest and read the whole thing.<\/p>\n
Mark and I have learned so much about what cancer is and how it grows and spreads.\u00a0 One of the most significant things we\u2019ve learned is how many different types\/subtypes there are and how they all react differently to treatment.\u00a0 I\u2019m hesitant to post here about the science behind cancer because it\u2019s difficult to explain, and I know I will not be 100% accurate, but I\u2019ll explain my understanding with the caveat that this is only<\/em> my understanding and not to be taken as gospel truth.<\/p>\n Cancer is amazingly fascinating and horrifying at the same time.\u00a0 The body\u2019s gene sequence basically forgets how to manage cell growth, division, and death.\u00a0 Healthy cells will normally grow, divide, perhaps rest, perhaps stop growing, and eventually will die. \u00a0With cancerous cells, the body (one or more genes) fails or forgets how to instruct cells on proper life-cycle activity.\u00a0 These cells can grow at accelerated rates and then refuse to die when they should.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 That\u2019s cancer.\u00a0 Eventually, those malignant cells find a hospitable source to make a home, say fatty tissue in the breast, and they congregate there.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tumor.\u00a0 The cancer cells might then spread through the blood stream to other hospitable environments in the body such as lymph nodes (near metastasis) or other vital organs (distant metastasis).\u00a0 Once distant metastases has been reached, breast cancer is incurable.<\/p>\n There are so many types of cancer.\u00a0 Each has unique characteristics and to be honest, I haven\u2019t spent much time looking up information about the different types.\u00a0 I\u2019ve focused on breast cancer types naturally.<\/p>\n Breast cancers are defined as one of the following subtypes:\u00a0 ER positive, PR Positive, HER2 Positive, or Triple Negative\/Triple Positive<\/p>\n ER ( endocrine receptor)\u00a0 is hormone estrogen driven.\u00a0 It is common in older women, and it is the most common type of breast cancer overall.<\/p>\n ER\/PR (progesterone receptor) is another category where cancer is driven by progesterone.\u00a0 Both ER and PR (ER\/PR) have a good chance of responding to endocrine therapies.<\/p>\n HER2 is a protein-driven cancer which makes up about \u00bc of all breast cancers.\u00a0 It can be more aggressive but there are focused treatments which can target those cells very well.\u00a0 There seem to be many promising advances in the treatment of HER2 cancers.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, sometimes breast cancer is neither ER, PR, nor HER2 and this type is called Triple Negative since it fails to be identified as any from that trio.\u00a0 Occasionally, breast cancer can be identified as expressing all three, and that is called triple positive.\u00a0 I have triple negative breast cancer (TNBC).\u00a0 All of these different types react differently to the various forms of chemotherapy\/drugs which exist.\u00a0 Also, two people with the exact same type of cancer might have different responses to identical treatments.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s so difficult to find a cure.\u00a0 There are so many different types of cancer and so many different reactions to the therapy.<\/p>\n Triple Negative breast cancer sucks because it\u2019s difficult to target those cancer cells, and it is often fast-growing.\u00a0 Women typically have a poor prognosis when diagnosed with TNBC.<\/p>\n Many cancers are curable.\u00a0 If they are found soon enough, they can be treated and surgery can be performed to remove the tumor(s).\u00a0 Radiation regimens and then chemo follow-up helps ensure all of the cancer cells are destroyed.\u00a0 If that goes well, many people can go on to live full, normal lives free from cancer.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, some cancers can\u2019t be cured.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know the science behind it all, but I know that metastatic breast cancer can\u2019t be cured through modern medicine, surgery, chemo, or radiation.\u00a0 It can be treated and \u201cheld off\u201d, but it can\u2019t be cured.<\/p>\n From the day I was diagnosed, it was already stage IV.\u00a0 Stage 0 cancer means there is cancer in one localized area with no spreading. Stage I means that the tumor has spread to nearby tissue surrounding the tumor. Stages II & III mean the cancer has spread to deeper tissue and to lymph nodes. Stage IV cancer means the cancer has spread to other organs or body parts. Stage IV breast cancer is incurable.\u00a0 The initial diagnosis by stages never changes. So if a person was first diagnosed with a stage I cancer but the cancer returned years later and other organs had cancer cells in them, it would still be Stage I cancer but \u201cwith metastases\u201d would be added to the stage 1 cancer diagnosis. The new information regarding the cancer is simply added on to the diagnosis. The staging of cancer is significant, and the type of breast cancer I have (the fact that it is an unknown kind) makes my diagnosis quite harsh.<\/p>\n This is where I have to say I have experienced a small amount of frustration as a woman with an incurable cancer.\u00a0 Inevitably, people try to encourage me by telling me about a friend or relative of theirs who had cancer (not triple negative breast cancer and not metastatic and incurable) but they were cured and are now doing well.\u00a0 It\u2019s strange to say it like this, but that actually only serves to discourage me.\u00a0 It shows a lack of understanding of my situation by the person telling me the story. My story won’t end that way unless God reaches in and performs a miracle. I hope that doesn\u2019t sound too harsh, but it\u2019s true. Survival stories are wonderful, but it makes me feel like I have a different disease altogether. \u00a0I love when friends encourage me, and like I said, this is just a small form of frustration. I\u2019ve learned from these experiences that I can often be more encouraging to my friends by simply telling them that I don\u2019t have words to encourage them, but that I am sorry they are experiencing it, that I am with them, and that I am praying for them. \u00a0Empathy is just the best way to relate to someone with cancer.<\/p>\n This is also the reason Mark stopped participating in message boards in the cancer community.\u00a0 It was as if everyone on there had a lesser severity of cancer, and they couldn\u2019t relate to Mark who was looking to basically communicate (commiserate?) with others in the same situation.\u00a0 He loves to speak with our oncologist because it often seems like that Dr is the only one who truly gets<\/em> us, and that somehow makes it feel like he is with <\/em>us.\u00a0 That\u2019s another reason it\u2019s so important to find an oncologist who not only presents a good treatment plan but to find one who also relates well personally.\u00a0 Meetings with our oncologist have at times made us feel calmer; it\u2019s therapeutic to be able to talk to someone who fully understands (more than we do I suppose).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m a nerd.\u00a0 I love to learn about new and interesting things.\u00a0 I get it from my dad I suppose.\u00a0 On family vacations, he and I always stop at each of the marker signs at a point-of-interest and read the whole thing. Mark and I have learned so much about what cancer is and how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-205","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P75Yu9-3j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205\/revisions\/634"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Treatable vs Curable<\/h4>\n
Stages of Cancer<\/h4>\n