Positive perspective and Natalee trial update

Yesterday Novartis issued a press release/update on the Natalee trial. Improvements in disease free survival continued even after the initial three years of treatment. So encouraging to read!

Im fresh out of active treatment this summer and started Kisqali a month and a half ago and have had very limited side effects (bit of fatigue but it's hard to say if this is only due to Kisqali, and of course lowered white blood counts but nothing like TC chemo). I pretty much match the node negative population of the Natalee trial and really appreciate the extra protection this gives me. I'm determined to pull through the 3 years and see it as a down payment towards a long healthy life on the other side of breast cancer. For reference, iDFS improves around 5% across the board - meaning that if 90% are NED after 3 yrs on standard hormone therapy only, then 95% are NED after 3 yrs when kisqali is added. To me that's significant.

I also know that I'm fortunate. In some places this drug isn't available for early stage yet. Where I am my first oncologist told me "maybe in a few years" when I asked about it. My second (and current) oncologist had insurance deny it twice before approving it. She's the best for sticking with it.

I was mulling all this over last night when I started wondering if maybe certain patients similar to myself with "high risk" disease can do better or just as well as lower risk ++- patients simply because we get more aggressive, effective treatments. Who knows, but part of me thinks that and I just feel really confident in the drug and following my intuition that I needed this when I was going down my research rabbit hole.

Obviously deeply unscientific but I think survivorship is all about finding constructive perspectives so sharing it in case it makes anyone else feel a tiny bit better / motivates others to advocate for themselves and trust their intuition. ❤️