Breast cancer survivors support each other in Homewood Park today

HOMEWOOD, Ala. -- Dressed in pink, the 70 or so people laughing and eating barbecue in Homewood Park this afternoon had something in common.

All are survivors or family members of survivors of a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer with a scary name.?

Triple negative breast cancer.

"By the time I received the diagnosis of triple negative I knew just enough to be terrified," said Karen Bryars, a 35-year-old triple negative survivor who was diagnosed two years ago.

Bryars was among those at the New Light Support group, which meets four times a year to have fun and talk about their shared experiences.

"This is like a family," said Vicky Hopkins, a 51-year-old who was diagnosed two years ago. "These women get it. Sometimes they understand better or at least differently than our own families."

Dr. Andres Forero, a cancer specialist at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, started the support group about two years ago.

"When you are first diagnosed and start reading about this disease, you become very upset and feel alone," Forero said. "By putting together this group, they see that they are not alone, that there are survivors."

About 40 to 50 percent of patients with a triple negative diagnosis do not relapse after treatment, Forero said.

The cancer is particularly aggressive and is more prevalent in African American and Hispanic women for reasons unknown, Forero said. The problem with the disease is that it does not respond to targeted treatments as other breast cancers do because the cancer cells don't have three things: estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors or the HER2 protein - hence the triple negative name.

At the picnic, Dr. Jobe Fix, a UAB plastic surgeon, spoke to the women about reconstructive breast surgery. In some cases triple negative patients have fewer options with such surgery because of radiation treatment - but there are options, Fix said.

Fix also said that some may not be aware that since 1998, insurance companies by law must include reconstructive surgery in their plans.

Cancer survivors Hancock and Bryars, who became fast friends ever since meeting in a patient waiting room where Hancock was reading "Breast Cancer for Dummies, had advice for other woman.

"Do your self-exams," said Bryars, who found her cancerous lump that way.

"Stay active and be your own advocate," said Hancock, who was first told that her lump was probably not cancer.

And they both agreed, the best support comes from those with the shared experience.

"We don't have a targeted treatment," Bryars said, looking around at all the women enjoying each others' company on a partly cloudy day in Homewood. "This is our treatment."

Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/10/breast_cancer_survivors_suppor.html

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