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In Subchapter 3.1, “Growth of Cancer”, we discussed the role of receptors in cancer
cells. Doctors seek to determine what causes certain types of cancer to progress by identifying
its “receptors”. These receptors function like mouths: when open, the cancer cells feed
and rapidly grow.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer tumors lack receptors for any of three bodily chemicals:
estrogen, progesterone, and the HER2/neu gene. There are still effective treatments for it,
such as chemotherapy, but doctors are not sure what stimulates this type of tumor to
grow.
Women with a family history of breast cancer, specifically with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 breast
gene mutation, are more at risk for developing Triple Negative Breast Cancer.