Par Emilien Vicens
Published on
updated on 15 Mar 23 at 20:20
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Eva is a tax lawyer. This 42-year-old woman lives a few kilometers from Perpignan, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, with her husband and two children. Six years ago, her life changed dramatically when doctors diagnosed her with cancer be you
But while the survival rate is now very favorable among women with hormone-dependent breast cancer, the most common form, for Eva, the disease is much more difficult to fight.
The triple negative, this little-known breast cancer
It is after several remissions, but as many recurrences, that she finally puts a precise word on this evil that she has been fighting for all this time: the triple negative. “I suffer from unrecognized and very aggressive breast cancer,” she summarizes.
Today, Eva is fighting for her survival. For science to make up for lost time. She also decided to speak. Speak to reveal the existence of this cancer. Speak to sensitize all women. News Perpignan collected his moving and worthy testimony.
A rarer, more “nasty” form
For Eva, the arrival of the disease occurs in 2017. The young woman notices a nipple lesion. From her first medical appointments, she only obtained local treatment to treat this sudden skin appearance. Weeks pass, but other various symptoms appear. “I felt that something was wrong”she recalls.
It is only six months later, and a whole bunch of examinations, that the final diagnosis falls: Eva suffers from breast cancer. “It’s very late for a diagnosis”, laments the lawyer. Especially since there again, she is not really informed of the particularity of the latter. The mention “triple negative” appears on its results. But what does she mean?
In reality, this type of breast cancer is distinguished by the fact that it does not have any of the three main receptors (estradiol / estrogen / progesterone / HER2) commonly used to treat and target cancerous tumors. In fact, this form turns out more “nasty” than the others. A term that Eva will only hear after a few years.
“I had not been told at all about the aggressiveness of this cancer”
And for good reason, “after my first remission, in 2018, I thought I was cured of breast cancer, like many women before me”. But more than a year and a half later, Eva sees a trace of hematoma appear on her chest. “I also had pain in my arm and in my back,” she lists. A first recurrence, then a second.
“I had not been told at all about the aggressiveness of this cancer”, testifies Eva. And it is also at this time that the fight against the disease takes another turn, in 2021, when she learns that the cancer has metastasized. ” A shock “, she confides:
I learned that there is no cure for this cancer. The median life expectancy for metastatic breast cancer is fourteen months.
Looking for therapeutic trials
Since then, this mother of two little boys, aged 7 and 10, keep fighting. Last year, she had access to a new treatment from an American laboratory. “There was a partial regression of metastases. But on February 24, I learned that they were leaving. »
From now on, Eva is looking for therapeutic trials and should go to Lyon soon. Another difficult decision. “I have a dilemma between my survival instinct and enjoying life and my loved ones. But I want to believe it, ”she sums up simply.
“Do you have breast cancer? Oh, I’m good… “
“In the beginning, for me, there were only two options: either I heal or I die. Today, I begin to have another state of mind, that of living with the disease. So, to avoid experiencing new empty passages very complicated to overcome, Eva filled her schedule, between her medical appointments, sports, yoga, or even ceramics and sewing.
However, still today, “The hardest part is the reaction of some people who do not know this cancer. ‘Do you have breast cancer? Oh, it’s ok…’, they sometimes reply. Except that in 2023, many women are still dying of breast cancer”. This is also why Eva decided to speak:
Triple negative affects mostly women between 25 and 40 years old. You have to listen to each other, trust each other, and not be afraid to upset the medical staff sometimes. My tumors were not visible on the mammogram, do not hesitate to ask for examinations. Screening saves lives.
Triple negative breast cancer in numbers
15%: Of all the breast cancers detected each year in France, triple negative is the least frequent subtype of breast cancer. It accounts for 15% of cases.
9,000: The number of new triple negative breast cancers detected each year in France.
40 years old: Triple negative is a breast cancer that also affects young women. 40% of cases concern women under the age of 40.
30%: Three years after the announcement of the diagnosis, the recurrence rate remains very high. Around 30%.
14 months: This is the median survival in the event of recurrence with metastases. Fourteen months after a metastatic recurrence, half of the people died.
A solidarity march near Perpignan
Around her, the young woman was also able to count on unfailing support. From his relatives, first. But more. A few days ago, two hundred people took part, alongside him, in a challenge organized by the Pink Triplets Collective, an association very committed to raising awareness around triple negative cancer. 35,000 euros were also collected for research.
In the Pyrénées-Orientales, the “Team Eva” walked 3,800 kilometers in total around the lake of Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, during a day that Eva will remember for a long time.
” It was great. It gave me a lot of energy, a lot of strength,” smiles the one who became, a few days ago, the new Occitanie ambassador of the Collectif Triplettes Roses. To talk as much as possible about this cancer which affects 9,000 women in France each year.
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