I know I said I was going to blog less, but yesterday’s appointments were interesting enough (at least to me) that I wanted to give an update. And I do think writing it all down provides a record for me and makes sure I understand it as well!

The big news was that there was pCR*. That is, when they biopsied the tissue removed following surgery, they found a “Pathological Complete Response (pCR).” This is a term used to describe the absence of cancer in the breast and lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. (Reminder that neoadjuvant means before surgery, which is a less common path with breast cancer.) Consequently, there was no genetic testing to be done following surgery, because there was no cancerous tissue to test!

My oncologist was thrilled by this and said it was a “very, very rare outcome.” She was very excited about it! If I’m reading the papers from the mammoprint correctly, it looks like it might have been about 13% chance of reaching pCR from the neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Now, I was confused for a bit. Because I thought that at all those radiology appointments, the ones where they measured and remeasured and then later inserted the guidewire, that they were measuring the remaining cancer. It turns out, they were measuring that they thought was the cancerous tumor (because it looked like one and used to be one!), but the chemo had already cleared it out.

Why is this good? Well, obviously it is great that we don’t currently detect any cancer! But hopefully that would have happened with surgery anyway, but the pCR adds a few additional dimensions:

  • We know that the chemo worked on my cancer. That’s really good news. Now, the chemo also worked because the tumor was fast-growing. Fast moving was not great, but it is great that the chemo (and this particular chemo) did its job! We didn’t have to look at alternate options.
  • But the goal of my cancer treatment is not just to get rid of the cancer: the real goal is stop it from reoccurring. It sounds like with some types of breast cancers, achieving pCR is a big sign that it won’t reoccur, but I don’t know that is the case for my particular type. (And since neoadjuvant chemo is more rare with ++- breast cancer than with — cancer, I’m not sure the research exists, but I may end up asking my oncologist.)
  • However, we know that the chemo itself was a big help in improving my odds that the cancer won’t return. So having the chemo work this well is just another benefit.

However, we aren’t done with trying to prevent the cancer from returning. Next up will be:

  • Radiation (I won’t know details until a December appointment)
  • A hormone inhibitor
  • A CDK 4/6 inhibitor, which stops cancer cells from dividing.

I think this post is long enough, so I’ll add details on what I learned about next steps later. But, for today, we can be happy for pCR.


Comments

13 responses to “pCR”

  1. I choose to believe it’s because you kicked cancers @ss so thoroughly that you got it running scared. 🥰❤️

  2. What phenomenal news! So happy for you!

  3. Michael-Anne Mundy Avatar
    Michael-Anne Mundy

    That is wonderful news. I am so happy for you! 🩷🙏🙏

  4. Katie Gartner Avatar
    Katie Gartner

    This is such awesome news!

  5. Nancy Epley Avatar
    Nancy Epley

    Thank you for sharing such wonderful news!!!!🙏🏼❤️

  6. Alice Setrini Avatar
    Alice Setrini

    Terrific outcome thanks for sharing I agree writing stuff down helps me make sure I understand it and then can remember later!

  7. Beth Vaccaro Avatar
    Beth Vaccaro

    That is amazing news! I know nothing is 100%, but this is clearly awesome.

  8. Julie Boilesen Avatar
    Julie Boilesen

    This is incredible! So happy for you.

  9. Ashley Ballou Avatar
    Ashley Ballou

    Great news!

  10. Margaret Kring Avatar
    Margaret Kring

    Thanks for the update. Sounds great

  11. Jane Perry Avatar
    Jane Perry

    Yippee! God is so cool!

  12. This is great news!!