A member of the CJAD 800 family who's been battling cancer received some good news recently — Tracey McKee, a veteran broadcaster and sometime fill-in for Ken Connors on weekend mornings, learned that after six months of treatments, doctors found no more cancer cells.
Last summer, McKee was told she had what's called triple-negative breast cancer — a rare and aggressive form of the disease. Since then, she's gone through months of chemotherapy treatments, and a partial mastectomy. She also started a blog called In The Pink, to tell her story of her cancer fight.
This past Saturday morning, she told CJAD 800's Ken Connors the good news.
"The news is that I just found out that after the surgery, I have had a complete pathological response to my treatment, which means I am officially cancer-free!" McKee said. "The surgery was three weeks ago, and I'm back to my old self and...onwards and upwards!"
She's still processing the good news, which she says is normal after seven long months of tests and treatments. She still has more treatments ahead of her, however — just to make absolutely certain the disease does not return.
Triple-negative breast cancer has a high rate of recurrence — usually within the first three years after diagnosis.
"But, the fact that I've had a complete pathological response means that my chance of recurrence is a lot less," she says. "But I still have radiation and nine treatments of immunotherapy ahead of me, just to give me that insurance to make sure that this disease does not come back, because if it comes back, it's not curable."