My wife is currently having chemotherapy and immunotherapy for TNBC (I am also a BC survivor of 28 and 6 years!)
Due to side effects - mainly red, painful and swollen feet, the Immunotherapy has been put on hold. The chemotherapy is still ongoing. The oncologist hasn’t given any information on how missing the immunotherapy may impact on my wife’s outcomes, so we are concerned about this.
The recent scan showed that the tumour has shrunk by a third in 3 months, which the surgeon said was very good news.
I have metastatic TNBC and was being treated with Pembrolizumab and NAB-Paclitaxel in 2023. Unfortunately I suffered an adverse event with the pembro - it caused my immune system to damage my kidneys, thyroid and lungs. It was a sufficiently severe reaction that I had to stop treatment entirely and needed 9 months of high dose steroids to manage the consequences. The treatment had significantly reduced my mets so I was devastated at having to stop, as it seemed like my only lifeline. However my cancer went into remission and I have stayed clear.
Because Pembro is a PD/1 inhibitor it can lead to all sorts of consequences particularly when someone responds well to it. The medical teams assess the grade of every adverse event and it may be possible to resume treatment once the problem has settled down. It continues working in the body for quite some time after treatment stops too, so hopefully the improvements will continue.