Receptors are how we often successfully target cancer cells and when there are no receptors, those same medications may not work. Our sisters with metastatic triple negative breast cancer have a particularly rough experience since the only medication that is usually effective are the harshest IV chemotherapeutic agents. This can mean some very rough days and lots of long lasting side effects.
Knowing your subtype and what to do to treat it is so very key. This is also why breast cancer isn’t so easy to solve — the different subtypes are often nearly different diseases. And when someone talks about one experience, which is very different from another person’s, it is often because they have different types of breast cancer.
Knowledge is power and we all need more!
No Half Measures 
I have a friend whose cousin was diagnosed with TNBC 2 months ago. The tumor was removed and she was told that she had to undergo 6 weeks of radiation. Then the doctors changed that and said she needed chemo. I hurt for her because research has not been able to develop an effective treatment for TNBC.
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There is one treatment approved by the fda to treat mTNBC outside of chemo and while it does help some, there is so much left to be done. And yes, treatment plans change often when the team learns more about individual tumors. Just another reminder of how complicated this living with while dying of cancer thing is.
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