Made by hand in Canva, in an effort to help my friends and family visualize my overlapping treatments.

Data is indeed beautiful, you having to deal with this kind of shit certainly is not. Hope you fully recover, best wishes from Germany.

This is honestly the richest post I’ve ever seen on here. This data holds an incredible amount of weight and conveys so much emotion. I appreciate this post probably more than you expected and I’m not even personally connected to any cancer patients or survivors. I wish for the best of everything for you and I’m so sorry you had to endure all of this. You kickass.

Thank you for the very kind words -- that's the impact I was hoping it would have. Before being diagnosed, I had no idea how long the breast cancer "journey" would be. As I approached each milestone, I thought "ahhh I'm finally in the home stretch!" and my cancer team would say "actually, there's more..." I'm grateful there are so many lines of treatment available for my type of cancer (the alternative would suck), but life truly will never be "back to normal" for me.

It literally brings tears to my eyes just thinking about all you’ve been through.

You should do another one on the costs associated, like insurance coverages and out of pocket expenses, etc. I have heard it can be crazy and I’m sure other people would be interested in this info.

Wishing you the best; stay strong, were all rooting for your success.

What a great way to visualize information that friends and family will be asking for! I'm so sorry that you're going through this. Wishing you all the best in your treatments.

The feels are so intense with this one. Thank you. TNBC stage 3.

How are you doing now?

The visualization is incredible, I had no idea how much went into treating breast cancer. I always thought it was a mastectomy and a round of chemo.

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Neither did I! This was really enlightening

Fellow breast cancer survivor here (five years out from treatment, 3.5 since second reconstruction). The whole, “but wait…there’s more!” really resonated with me. It’s such an unpredictable disease, and like you wrote, it differs incredibly not just by cancer type, but by individual. Over time, the twists do seem to get a little easier. I hope your journey eases soon, and the new normal is a good one.

Edit to add: also super smart to have this to explain to loved ones. I found explaining my diagnosis and treatment to be very emotionally difficult and draining. And then you end up comforting your friends and family because they feel so bad for you. My husband began sharing my news when he realized, which made it a lot easier for me (though tougher of course for him). Fuck cancer

It’s really painful to see you have to going through this, hope you get well before you know it

This is such a hard question to answer honestly... I don't really know how I'm doing. Physically I feel okay. Mentally/emotionally, I'm scarred, but not unable to live my life. But there is always a chance that my cancer cells went roaming in my body and are taking root again, so I'll never really know if I'm ok.

Try reading NCCN guidelines. This is so much easier to read. Someone should do this for all cancer types!

This is so nice. Thank you. Please consider posting to r/breastcancer.

Do any of you r/dataisbeautiful people know of a breast-cancer resource for calculating risk for a very specific case (T1a N0 ER+(100%), PR+(9%), HER2- invasive ductal carcinoma, mid 50s in age, very-dense breasts, family history of leukemia)? There are tons of studies on breast cancer, but we haven't found something to pull them all together to calculate risk to help guide treatment. NCCN guidelines are nice but are too general and ignore our aggravating factors. The one I'm supporting loves data. I think a nomogram would be great.

I have no idea what I’m looking at with these lines

I also had triple positive breast cancer. Most of my treatment was the same, but two years in, I’m only on Anastrozole. I’m amazed and so grateful for how effective Herceptin is!

I love this timeline. It puts a wonderful visual to the treatment.

Stay strong! You got this. I have triple positive. I know the battle is long and hard with TNBC.

Yeah, and knowing why there are different colors would be good too.

I'm sorry about your cancer. Still, this is confusing.

I wish you all the best stranger, my dad has Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and after 5 years of watching and waiting he's more then likely going to be given a treatment timeline soon as well.

I did post a link to the graphic on r/breastcancer, but that sub doesn't allow images to be directly posted on it. (BTW that sub is a wonderful resource for breast cancer patients, and has been one of my most frequently visited websites throughout!)

Reading this makes me feel even more terrible for people with cancer. Like great you survived not take more pills than juice wrld

To be honest, if you’re looking for a resource for guiding treatment, that pulls all studies together to make a recommendation, you’re really not going to find anything better than NCCN. NCCN is created by national experts in medical, surgical and radiation oncology and is updated very regularly, as practice changing studies come out.

Not to say that it is the end all be all of cancer care, but it’s probably the best out there.

If you have any particular questions about what is recommended on there, and why, I could probably point you in the right direction of the clinical trials that established standards of care.

Source: am oncologist

this is very helpful for me to understand why things keep shifting as someone is undergoing treatment. thank you for making it

Great representation, OP! I wish you the best on your journey as I lived it with my wife, and she's 3 years clear.

But FFS, don't forget about BII! Your body will definitely let you know if it sets in, so listen.

Damn. That are a great many pills you have to take.

You doing OK?

I don’t see Herceptin on this

I had Herceptin in my TCHP chemo cocktail. MegBundy most likely achieved pCR (pathologic complete response), which means her chemo completely killed her cancer.

When a triple positive patient gets pCR, she gets Herceptin infusions (or shots).

When a triple positive patient doesn’t achieve pCR, the prognosis isn’t as rosy, so they throw stronger drugs at it, including Kadcyla, Nerlynx, Zometa, and whatever other new treatments they can concoct (new treatments are coming out almost every year).

I feel ok today. The Nerlynx side effects are my current challenge, but I’m hopeful my doctor can get me the recommended prescriptions tomorrow to help relieve some of that!

It’s basically a vertical Gannt chart.

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I didn’t achieve pcr, but hopefully my double mastectomy removed all the cancer. I often consider about how much the cancer would have spread without Herceptin. I don’t think the previous poster , u/gedmathteacher , realizes that triple positive was very aggressive and deadly before Herceptin, which has only been around for twenty years. My husband met one of the researchers who discovered Herceptin, Dennis Slamon, and discussed my therapy with him when I was first diagnosed. TCHP is standard treatment for the vast majority of triple positive cases. The H in TCHP is Herceptin, and TCHP is listed in the first line of the graph.

Herceptin can go by other names, Trastuzumab, Herzuma and Ontruzant, so maybe that’s confusing.

My apologies. Herceptin saved my sisters life. Now that I see where it is in the timeline, it’s the same course she had. She had the same cancer as you and wrote a book about it. I have no excuse to be so ignorant

Edit : she had triple negative

Triple negative is a terrible prognosis. I’m so sorry she went through that. It is so wonderful she survived.

I’m so glad that your treatment goes out to 10 years.

My sister’s did not.

It stopped at about 4.

She was DX’ed with stage 4 at 9 years.

Ugh she was HER2+, ER-

Thank you science regardless!!

I'm sorry for what you're going through, but your depiction of your treatment over 3 years is spectacular! Seriously, I work in clinical research and it's very hard to depict multiple lines of therapy over a long period of time. Very nice!

So many cancers out there! How can we keep track?! 😆

I am so sorry for you and your sister. I know that metastatic breast cancer treatment has come a long way, but that still sucks.

The body is easy compared to the mind. Best wishes!

Fuck cancer, keep fighting!

This data is absolutely beautiful. As a son of a two time breast cancer survivor you have my sincere empathy and respect.

Cheers, I've tried to explain to my friends and family that even though I did chemo, mastectomy, and reconstruction (no rads in my case) in 2019-2020, I am still being treated with tamoxifen, and because I am BRCA2+ I have a lot more surgeries ahead. They often congratulate me on being "done" and "beating cancer" but it is a constant, ongoing process that still means I am at the hospital for scans and checkups 6 times a year. All the best to you.

Really puts things in perspective. That's a lot of time spent at the hospital. I know from personal experience that the hospital sucks. The food sucks. The beds suck. The noise sucks. I'm sorry you had to go through that. It must have been terrifying. But, you're still around and that's what matters. I wish you the best of luck. Kick cancers ass!!

They're labeled on the sides? Look up a gantt chart and turn your head 90 degrees, same concept

EDIT: I'm convinced these people are trolling?! How are you confused, my guy? The lines are duration, there is labels on the side that tell you what each line means, the colors are to seperate the lines.

Yes -- people want me to reassure them that I'm "okay now," or "in remission," or "cured," or that the surgery "got it all out," or "had clear margins." When they ask like that, I know they want me to reassure them; they don't really want to hear the nitty gritty of how I'm doing, and what other treatments are still ahead of me.

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Triple-positive breast cancer is a type of breast cancer. It has cancer cells that test positive for the following three features:

(1) estrogen receptors (2) progesterone receptors (3) a larger amount of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) protein

Triple positive breast cancer is very aggressive, but because we know three things helping it to grow, we have more weapons available to prohibit its growth.

Great data, hope you get better.

This is extremely confusing to read. It would be much more readable in a horizontal format with the labels within the bars, and without any lines making the viewer hunt from bar to the bar's label. It's also confusing what the columns and colors represent. Lot of problems here.

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Herceptin is the H in TCHP Taxotere Carboplatin Herceptin Perjeta

An an information designer and caregiver, that's awesome. Well done! Good luck in your treatment.

It does. She managed to live an additional 2 years after her DX.

But her care before that was abominable (retired RN, here.)

Triple negative means the cancer doesn't have estrogen or progesterone receptors, or make excessive HER2 proteins.

Herceptin is generally for HER2 positive cancer.

Your chart is excellent, but I can't help but feel it downplays the horror that is cancer treatments the chemo side effects, neuropathy, surgical drains, residual pain from the radiation, hormonal train wreck..

I hope you have a full recovery... hang in there..

As a marketing professional, I’m impressed you made that in Canva! lol my mom just went through breast cancer surgery and treatment in 2021-22. We sympathize with the timing of the process 💕

I chose to make it vertical because my family and friends will be referencing it on their mobile devices while app-switching to/from other vertically oriented apps.

The colors do not represent anything in particular.

I suspect if you, or someone you love, we’re going through cancer this would be a little easier to comprehend, but I understand that without that life experience and context, it’s difficult to read unfamiliar data in a colorful vertical gannt chart.

I've only had breast reconstruction with no cancer and I feel like I've been put through the ringer with no end in sight to the surgeries and procedures and complications. I don't think I could have gotten through it had it been cancer as well. Kudos to you for fighting this hard.

I'm BRCA2 and CHEK2 as well. It means you are never done in my mind. I've had an oophorectomy and mastectomy, but I need colonoscopies every 3 years, skin scans every year, etc.

This is a really well put together chart. Always wonder how hormonal drugs work on cancer.

Wishing you for good health, body and spirit.

Yeah it's neverending. I had the mastectomy at 31 when they found the cancer, and I'm 35 now and we're starting to discuss removing my fallopian tubes now to reduce the ovarian cancer risks and ovaries later since I can't take hrt and my family history has issues related to menopause (very weak bone and heart health on my mom's side). Already had to have a surgery to check for issues with growths from tamoxifen after 2.5 years taking it. I'll probably be doing the tubes this summer. I want to eventually speak with my plastic surgeon about removing my implants and going flat. I've not "warmed up" to them and live in constant discomfort from the implants and just kind of want to be done with that. Anyway, chek2 and brca? Damn that's unlucky. I'm really sorry.

Not sure I've ever seen data so perfectly aesthetically concise.

I had the mastectomy and clotted twice in surgery, which led to a huge necrotic wound that took 3 months to heal. That led to a blood disorder diagnosis. In revision surgery, I got a staph infection, my incision ruptured, and I needed IV antibiotics. The CT scan found an enlarged heart. And this is all WITHOUT cancer. Yet. Oophorectomy was ok, but I struggled for a bit when I had to get off the estrogen due to the blood disorder.

Have you considered a DIEP reconstruction? Even with all the problems I have, my boobs/figure look pretty great, I feel somewhat like myself again (loss of sensation is hard) even though I lost a nipple due to necrosis. It'll get reconstructed. I'm really happy with how realistic everything looks and feels. It was a really rough recovery the first 2 weeks and I just had to move really really slow, but I was back to myself 6-8 weeks later aside from strenuous exercise

Good luck with your treatment and recovery!

You've really had a string of terrible luck!

My surgeon said I'm not a candidate for diep due to being to small and I have pretty bad asthma and can't be under anesthesia for the length of time they'd need. I think that was his explanation. This was in 2019 and I was more concerned with the cancer and treatment and just kind of accepted what my team was telling me the plan was. At this point I'd honestly be happy to be flat. I was never very attached to my breasts, and I won't be able to get feeling back either way, so it's just kind of moot. At the end of the day though, I'm probably going to avoid extra surgeries so it's probably going to be just whatever they say I need to replace the current implants and just do it at the same time.

Wow! What a fucking battle! I had no idea. Hope you’re doing well!

Out of curiosity, what's your blood disorder? I have FVL and MTHFR, which is why I chose implant-based reconstruction rather than autologous reconstruction.

My blood disorder is unknown. I've had high factor VIII and protein S, high RBC and high hemoglobin. My cbc and coagulation workup is literally different every time. Until they have a better idea, my treatment plan is lovonax after surgery.

So have you!!

That makes total sense. The length of the surgery is hard on anyone, and you shouldn't go through a recovery like that if you ultimately don't care as much.

I very very much get that "Idgaf I just wanna be done with it" feeling. Shit has been so rough I wanna keep my plastic surgeon as my emergency contact 🤣🤣. I don't even wanna have a gallbladder removed without him in the room

Wow. Really brings into perspective all the treatments a cancer patient has to endure. Thanks for sharing.

They all say different things, and also, why are there multiple columns with matching colors in them then?

Sorry you’re going through this. A friend had triple positive breast cancer about a decade ago and had a similar timeline. Knowing the timeline helped her know what to expect, and when and what was next.

You're the first CHEK2 person I've met aside from my friend Debra. A few years ago, Debra went in for surgery for abdominal pain that everyone thought was an ovarian cyst and they found fucking appendix cancer. You have never heard of it because it is not a thing - it's literally "1 in a million" rare. When she told her doctors "Oh yeah, my uncle was diagnosed with appendix cancer, too", the surgeon told her to run, not walk, to a medical geneticist. Surprise, CHEK2 mutation! It explained why breast and ovarian cancer run in her family, but everyone had tested negative for the common BRCA1/2 mutations.

Shit that looks like hell... But congrats on living! I'm glad you are around to make this post

My friend Katie died of her chek2 mutation at age 32. It was long and horrible and she told me that if she could go back, she'd get the surgeries. It's not as famous as BRCA but it has a range of health effects. No woman on that side of my family has lived past 50

I wish my team had presented this to me in advance, or at least something like it. I keep feeling blindsided by the "but wait there's more" aspect of my treatment.

edit: nevermind, sorry you had cancer.

Debra was also about 30 when diagnosed. She got lucky: if you catch appendix cancer in Stage 1 like they did for her, it's basically "snippy snippy, congrats, you're cured!" She's since had all the other recommended prophylactic surgeries and gotten her kids genetically tested.

I'm a geneticist working on cancer treatments, so this is all Relevant To My Interests. Most hereditary cancer syndromes are caused by a DNA repair or checkpoint gene being mutated (no surprise, CHEK2 = checkpoint gene). I'd think you'd be equally likely to get cancer in any tissue type with that kind of problem. But instead, there are very strong patterns to which organs the cancers tend to start in.

Hooray for being able to ID these mutations and what tends to go wrong. Now we have some clue what to watch out for in each person. And I wish you better luck going forward.

Thank you!!! Hoping for another 20 or 30 years

I was not looking for criticism, but I also wasn’t “just wanting upvotes.” I shared it because it has been helpful to my loved ones to see my treatment plan visualized, and it other patients who have seen it have expressed how helpful it was for them when trying to understand which treatments to expect. I hoped that it would be helpful to others by sharing it in a more public space, and based on the comments and DMs I’ve received, others have found it genuinely helpful.

I am baffled that anyone thinks someone going through cancer treatment is IN ANY WAY motivated by fake internet points. I hope you never experience a life threatening illness, but if you do, perhaps you’ll be inspired to use more energy helping fellow humans and less energy scouring Reddit looking for opportunities to make snide comments.

I don’t think she got it all in advance either and became exasperated. She began asking questions and taking notes. Then she’d select points in the timeline and focus on them as a goal, like, “in 18 months I’ll be able to go to the pool and swim.” (For a point in time after the reconstructive surgery.) It gave her a sense of when she could return to normal activities, and to plan and look forward to it.
About 18 months later we went to a spa for her birthday and she swam laps for the first time since the diagnosis. It was a wonderful day. She made it through the hurdles and is doing well. I wish the same for you.

We just had a family member pass away from this. I wish you the best of luck and most positive vibes in the universe. You can do it!💓

Ps. It was really smart to make this for family. You should share with your care team too! :)

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This is brilliant. Stage 3 rectal cancer survivor here. Would love to pull something together like this for my journey too. If anything to, like you, lay out what a road map could look like in such a clear/concise manner. How does one begin?

I know people want you to be OK, and it usually comes from a well-meaning place. But damn, you’ve been through a lot, for a long time. It’s more than fine to be nowhere near OK.

Thank you for sharing

It's extremely confusing to read.

I realize this is personal to you so I won't reply further and have edited my previous post.

But just know that discussion is one of the purposes of this sub. I'm not trying to insult you.

> A place to share and discuss visual representations of data: Graphs, charts, maps, etc.

wiki

> Posts should strive to present information as effectively as possible.

> A lack of good design ultimately limits the ability of a visualization to convey information.

> If you have some design experience, please add some constructive criticism, so people know how to improve.

The only reason I recognize "Lupron" is because of that episode of house where he prescribed it and told the patient that it's like milk. When asked to elaborate, he said "it's creamy."

All the best to you in the weeks, months, and years ahead. All cancers are unique. Mine was for sure and I'm still here 10+ years after my timeline was completed. Run out that timeline! One day you'll have fully finished each of the steps and you'll be free of that timeline. You'll be fully back on your own life timeline. Sending you sister courage & strength until AND after that day.

What does being triple positive mean? Did you get tested 3 times before you were finally sure you had cancer?

These medications sounds like the names of the chaos gods in warhammer universe

DM me. I have a template I can share, or if you’re not techy I can help you make one.

Triple-positive breast cancer is a type of breast cancer. It has cancer cells that test positive for the following three features:

(1) estrogen receptors (2) progesterone receptors (3) a larger amount of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) protein

Triple positive breast cancer is very aggressive, but because we know three things helping it to grow, we have more weapons available to prohibit its growth.

Triple positive here too! Luckily found super early. I struggled so much explaining to people why my treatment was so ongoing and aggressive. This explains it really well. You’re not on Tamoxifen? I started it but it absolutely wrecked me. Worse that the chemo, utterly horrendous. So I stopped it. So strange to think that 20-30 years ago, triple positive was almost a death sentence, but now there’s so many treatment options and it tends to respond really well.

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I’m not, and I’m not sure why! It could be because my hormone receptors were “just barely positive.” That’s a good question for me to ask my doc!

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Thank you for sharing this. My sister was diagnosed with 3c —22 years ago. She is still here. Ibrance lasted the longest (4 years ) with no side effects for her. With all the medications today, it is possible to live a long life—it’s a pain to keep going into the oncology office and getting scans for years but the outlook is so much better. 💕

Can either of you say more about this? I am considering my surgical options and also have MTHFR and FVL mutations.

Because I had FVL, there was an increased risk of an autologous fat transfer failing. I opted for silicone reconstruction.