I am Triple Negstive, dx'd 6/14/16. I had a 7.1 cm tumor. It was 4 tumors but they considered it one tumor. It grew between 6 month mammograms.

My tumor went from 2.1 cm to 7.1 cm in less than a month. I really wonder if it really grew thst quickly or if the mammogram were just wrong. I knew nothing about the different types of cancer when I was dx 'd . I did not see my ONC or Radiation ONC until after my BMX. So when my Surgeon scheduled surgery in 17 days for me , I thought that was normal.

They did chemo first for me , cause of my age and wanted to save my breast . But it didn't work out for me , I started out with 3 cm tumor and finish chemo with 4.2 cm , plus 2 lymph nodes infected , when I only had one in the begin . Its different for everyone.

There are a lot of other factors that go into the order and type of treatment each person receives outside of the TNBC. Sometimes they recommend chemo first to shrink the tumors or in later stages and sometimes it's surgery for earlier stages first to stop it from growing any more. I have a friend who is hormone positive and they are using hormone therapy first to slow it down. In my case, the whole team (including surgeon, oncologist, etc.) said it was an obvious choice for surgery first. Good thing, too. My TNBC went from around a .8 cm at first catch mammo/ultrasound in September to 1.9 cm in December. That's more than doubling in less than 3 months!

I wonder if it is usual protochol to have surgery first with TN. I was never given a choice. My mammogram showed a 2.1 cm TN tumor and they scheduled surgery 17 days later. The tumor actually ended up 7.1 cm.