Trying to find out the different types of breast cancer and what options a person has for treatment.Also would like to find a resource to understand the terminology on how to read the pathology report.
Cancer - 4 Answers
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1 :
With breast cancer there are ductal cancers (most common) and lobular cancers (less common) and there are other cancers which are very rare so I won't go into them. There are then 'carcinomas in situ' which is an extremely early form of cancer, is usually well treated and holds a good prognosis. If a cancer is not 'in situ' it is given a grade and stage, depending on how aggressive it is and how far it has spread within the breast itself and the rest of the body. Grade goes from 1-4 (4 being the worst) and stage goes from 1-5 (5 being cancer in other organs as well as breast). The higher each number the worse the cancer, and the more aggressive the treatment might be. For a lady with stage 5 cancer, she will likely be offered palliative care as there is unfortunately no chance of cure. Pathology reports will usually mention the receptor status of the cancer. ER+ means the cancer is sensitive to oestrogens so anti oestrogen drugs like Tamoxifen will be very helpful in treating it. ER- means that tamoxifen will not be useful HER+ means a highly aggressive tumour but luckily there is a treatment for HER+ve cancers in the form of Herceptin. HER-ve means a less aggressive cancer. That vaguely summarises breast cancer in mild detail. In nearly all cases though there is a lot of treatment and a lot of hope for ladies so dont let all this technical talk overly concern you. There will be a team of specialists who know the best treatment for each patient. The summary of treatment as I say, depends on the site and stage of the cancer but generally speaking There is Lumpectomy- removal of the cancer and preservation of the breast Mastectomy- removal of the breast Mastectomy and axillary clearance- removal of breast and clearing of nearby lypmh nodes Any surgery will be followed by either Radiotherapy to the chest wall Chemotherapy over a period of months Depending on receptor status Tamoxifen is used for up to 5 years, Herceptin I think up to 2 years Regular review and follow up mammograms to check for complete cure. In addition all ladies with mastectomy are offered breast reconstruction (usually) after treatment has finished to help them recover psychologically/emotionally. Hope this helps
2 :
The Canadian Cancer Society (I'm Canadian) has some excellent information relating to breast cancer located at: http://www.cancer.ca/Ontario/About%20cancer/Types%20of%20cancer/What%20is%20breast%20cancer.aspx?sc_lang=en&r=1 Not sure about the terminology you're looking for but this looks like a great jump-off point. You might also try the American Cancer Society site. Not sure what they have there but they most likely have great resources there too... Hope it helps..
3 :
In addition to what Zini explained you might also like to know a little about the structure of the pathology report. In addition to information on the identity of the patient the pathology report usually contains the following: 1) Clinical information. This is what the surgeon (or whoever sent the tissue for examination) tells the pathologist about this patient. 2) Macroscopic examination In this section the pathologist describes what he can see with the naked eye (eg. the size and appearance of the tumor, distance to the resection margin etc.). And also lists what has been sampled for microscopy. 3) Microscopic description. Describes the microscopic appearance of the cancer thus explaining why it is classified as it is (see Zinis answer) 4) Conclusion/diagnosis Summarizes the above making it easier/quicker for the surgeon/oncologist to plan further treatment. (sometimes the conclusion is incorporated in the microscopy section of the report)
4 :
estergen
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