[Becky]

Dear Ruth

I am so sorry about your sister. I was the first in my generation to have bc but my mom had 2 sisters who had it.

When I was diagnosed, 4 AC followed by 4 taxol was the gold standard chemo. I just finished my 4 AC when my mom had a positive biopsy for bc (highly hormone positive, Her2 neg. Tumor was less than 6mm so just lumpectomy and radiation).

I had genetic testing which was negative.

In October 2010, my youngest sister was diagnosed with high grade dcis. They do not test dcis for Her2 but her dcis was highly hormone positive (my cancer was moderate for ER only - PR neg and of course highly Her2). She had lumpectomy and radiation. She went on Tamoxifen (my mom went on Arimidex) but my sis had to go off as she developed blood clots - ugh. She is comtemplating oophorectomy.

My sister had genetic testing too which was negative.

I had ooph straight upfront 7 years ago because being moderately ER+ but PR neg and Her2+ tends to mean that tamoxifen may not work well. Ooph in a general population is known to reduce breast cancer risk and does reduce breast cancer risk in the BRCA+ population (a population that's bc is overwhelmingly triple negative).

Obviously my other sister is diligent and gets a mammo and then six months later an MRI.


Let your sister get tested and see what her results are and then go from there. Do not worry about what hasn't happened yet. Everyday has its own trials and tribulations.