Lani

basal type are the triple negatives ie, her2- as well as hormone negatives, but as you know her2negatives can metastasize as her2 positive--I guess the thinking is that the her2 testing was not done well or isn't as accurate as when you look for the gene on a multigene array chip. Some think they originate in basal( myoepithelial) cells a different cell type than ductal cells. Others just think they represent a different set of progenitor cells from a breast cancer stem cell. The real mystery continues ie, what characteristics does a breast cancer stem cell have ie, is her2 expressed, are hormonal receptors expressed?

Triple negative breast cancer has been tied to one of the two BRCA genes, I do not remember which at this moment--and everytime I go to look something up I lose everything I have typed in my post--this is still relatively preliminary thinking as described at ASCO and not written in stone.

Perhaps someone can instruct me how to save my posts while I go gather additional information. Sorry to be so computer illiterate.

Hope this helps,
Lani