Katie Couric's Emotional Update
- Journalist Katie Couric, 64, provided an emotional update about her close friend Sarah who is currently battling triple-negative breast cancer.
- Sarah was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer last February, and went through chemotherapy, radiation, and a double mastectomy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is now in remission.
- Triple negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of the disease and accounts for about 20 percent of all breast cancers.
Couric took to Instagram to post an update about her close friend Sarah, who was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer last February. According to Couric, Sarah had to go through treatment during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which understandably was an extremely challenging time for her. Now after going through chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and radiation over the last year, Sarah has entered remission.
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At the end of the post, Couric also expressed how grateful she is for the overwhelming messages of support and encouragement her fans sent about Sarah. “Your responses make me cry. Thank you all. Restores my faith in humanity,” Couric wrote. “This post is for all of you struggling, feeling lonely and scared. We care. Whoever you are. Wherever you are. And whatever you are dealing with.”
Katie Couric’s Cancer Advocacy
Couric lost her husband Jay Monahan to colorectal cancer in 1998, and as his primary caregiver, struggled with her emotional health after his passing. In 1997, Monahan was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer, which is a cancer that occurs in the colon or rectum. Couric was right by her husband's side while he went through treatment, but due to the disease being advanced, treatment options weren't as successful. He passed away a year later, and since Couric has become a passionate advocate for cancer research and prevention.
One of Couric’s main talking points about cancer prevention is pushing people to get screened and catch signs of cancer early. The earlier a diagnosis is caught, the more likely treatment will be successful.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer: What to Know
Triple negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of the disease and accounts for about 20 percent of all breast cancers. “Triple-negative” is a term used for breast cancers that do not have receptors for estrogen or progesterone or for a protein called HER2. What this means is that hormonal therapy can't be used because the cancer cells lack these receptors, and it also means that therapies targeted at HER2 will not be an effective treatment option. Despite this, there are still treatment options available for this disease.
Related: New Study Identifies Genes Linked to Increased Risk for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The main treatment for triple-negative breast cancer is chemotherapy, immunotherapy or participation in clinical trials. Different chemotherapy drugs are used to treat triple-negative breast cancer and they are often used in combination with one another. This typically sees very good results for women, but if the disease still progresses throughout treatment then your doctor may recommend a promising clinical trial.
“The good thing about triple negative breast cancer, because there’s so much fear surrounding it, is that it often responds very well to chemotherapy,” Dr. Elizabeth Comen, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet. “There’s one important point to note when speaking to your doctor if you’ve been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer is it’s very important to ask whether at the start of the diagnosis should you be receiving chemotherapy before surgery, which is what we call neoadjuvant chemotherapy, or should you be receiving chemotherapy after surgery, and that’s called adjuvant chemotherapy.”
Experts break down what to know about triple-negative breast cancer
In addition to chemotherapy, doctors may suggest giving chemotherapy alongside another treatment: namely immunotherapy. This treatment option harnesses the power of your own immune system to target and attack cancer cells, and has shown incredible promise for any people diagnosed with the disease. The combination of chemotherapy and an immunotherapy drug called atezolizumab (also known by its brand name, Tecentriq) can have a significant survival benefit. The combination of these drugs given as first-line therapy has been shown to increase overall survival time by as much as 10 months.
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