Grade 3 triple negative breast cancer

[SF89]

Hello, my MIL has been diagnosed with Grade 3 triple negative breast cancer, it is in her lymph nodes as well. She has been told she will most likely have chemo first before a lumpectomy and a possibility of radio.

We are all wondering why we have been given the grade and not the stage of the Cancer, can anyone tell me why?

Or if anyone has any experience of this type of cancer I'd really appreciate hearing your advice.

A biopsy of a breast lump gives the grade.
Patients always ask about stage but it's quite old fashioned and not so important nowadays for doctors.
If your MIL has chemotherapy the stage is likely to change before surgery anyway.

My sister had the same, she was diagnosed at 49. She's going to be 59 next week, if that's any comfort.

I had this, except mine hadn’t spread to the lymph nodes. Have they not mentioned immunotherapy? I had Pembrolizumab alongside the chemo, the side effects can be brutal but the outcomes are generally better.
There was a series of articles in the guardian by a woman with triple negative which really resonated with my experience (although her side effects were a lot worse). https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/28/the-secret-world-of-breast-cancer-17-surprising-things-i-wish-id-known
Don’t google long term outcomes, the stats look dreadful but are very out of date as treatments are developing all the time.
Has she been offered genetic testing for the BRACA (spelling?) gene mutation?

Hi, no as far as I know it hasn't been mentioned yet but she has only met with the surgeon so far, she is meeting with oncology on Tuesday so I will say to her to mention it to them!

If she wants to keep her hair during chemo, then ask about cold capping - it needs to be done from the start. (And get a warm snood got her neck as the cold tube from the cap lying in your neck really brings down your temperature.)

My surgeon said staging is really old fashioned now and he doesn't use stages, just grades. Wishing your mother in law and your family all the best x

My sister had this in her twenties (BRCA gene). She also had it in her lymph nodes and was grace 3 stage 2. She had chemo then double mastectomy and reconstruction and then radio. She’s been cancer free for 3 years now and doing great. The cold cap didn’t work but her hair has grown back now and she got a really good wig for while it was growing. Lots of good wishes to your mil - my sister found the help of breast cancer charities really useful

I had TNBC - it had spread to one lymph node so I was classed as stage 2.
this was in 2018.
I also had chemo first which was good as when I had the lumpectomy and lymph node clearance there was no sign of the cancer at all so we knew the chemo had done its job.
As previous poster suggested it’s worth thinking about genetic testing. There is a link between TNBC and brca mutation (even with no family history). I have brca and got it from my mum but she has never had breast cancer.
the treatments vary between hospitals/consultants and there will be “better” treatments now than when I had it. I had one type of chemo (EC) so I didn’t get out on the other main type because we could see with scans it was working.
the chemo was brutal but saved my life.
stay positive / if you Google TNBC it sounds terrifying but if it’s caught in time and the chemo does its job the survival rates are good.
I had double mastectomy and reconstruction (due to brca) which meant I didn’t have the radiotherapy. I’ve also had my ovaries removed.

try to keep positive and keep life as normal as possible.

I really struggled with it and essentially hid away for a year ( I had young kids and I think I was stuck in freeze mode) but just support her how she needs to be supported - other people share it with everyone - I shared it with very few people. There is no right or wrong way.
keep talking to the doctors, I was very sick with my chemo and they tried me on lots of anti sickness meds.
I wore the cold cap - it was horrible and didn’t work brilliantly - I lost about half of my hair but it meant a lot to me to keep some of it.

my life is pretty normal now - some long lasting side effects (I’m in early menopause for example) but I rarely worry about it/recurrence etc.

wishing her all the best x

If its in a few of her lymph nodes that makes it probably a stage 3 ( they can guestimate a size of tumourwith scans, but its not accurate). Hopefully not a 4 if no evidence of spread to other areas.
However, staging is usually only known after surgery as size of tumour is not known until its removed ( size beige a factor of grade). This only works if surgery comes first. But if having chemo first, then if the chemo works well, there may be little evidence of it during surgery as the chemo has done its job - shrinking or getting rid of it.