My tumor--although I don't like to "own" this--is a invasive ductile carcinoma. This means the tumor started inside the milk ducts of my right breast and started to invade the outlying breast tissue. (image: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types/idc)
Normal breast with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in an enlarged cross-section of the duct Breast profile:
A Ducts
B Lobules
C Dilated section of duct to hold milk
D Nipple
E fat
F pectoralis major muscle
G Chest wall/rib cage
Enlargement
A Normal duct cell
B Ductal cancer cells breaking through the basement membrane.
C Basement membrane
The tumor is a grade II on the Nottingham scale--which as I understand means the cells are just slightly mutated. This is NOT the stage of my cancer. As of right now the doctors have not given a stage. I presume this will come after the surgical pathology.
The biopsy of the lymph tissue came back negative which is great news. During surgery Dr. DJ will take a lymph node for pathology to determine more.
My cancer is estrogen and progesterone postive. This means the "food" the cancer is using to grow is my hormones. This is actually a good thing. This way we know where and how the cancer is growing and there is medicine to stop the hormones so the cancer doesn't have food to eat.
My tumor is 1.7x1.3x1.5 cm. Relatively this is a very small tumor even though it feels about the size of a bouncy ball in my chest. (Another reminder to feel your boobs often ladies and men).
I did also have an MRI scan of both breasts to get a better picture of where the cancer was inhabiting. I will describe more of the experience in another post. Dr. DJ told me in the MRI they found another lump of about 7mm. My ducts were also lined with illuminated cells. They can't prove or disprove there is cancer here unless they were to do a biopsy, but if either area came back cancerous the right breast would be unconservable.
At this point I don't know if I will need any additional treatment; whether it be radtiation, chemo, or medicine to help attack my cancer. We will find out this information after my breast tissue is sent to pathology and checked out under the microscope.
For more information on pathology reports: http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/ContentsofaPathologyReport.html
As more develops I will update the status of the cancer living inside of me.
A Ducts
B Lobules
C Dilated section of duct to hold milk
D Nipple
E fat
F pectoralis major muscle
G Chest wall/rib cage
Enlargement
A Normal duct cell
B Ductal cancer cells breaking through the basement membrane.
C Basement membrane
The tumor is a grade II on the Nottingham scale--which as I understand means the cells are just slightly mutated. This is NOT the stage of my cancer. As of right now the doctors have not given a stage. I presume this will come after the surgical pathology.
The biopsy of the lymph tissue came back negative which is great news. During surgery Dr. DJ will take a lymph node for pathology to determine more.
My cancer is estrogen and progesterone postive. This means the "food" the cancer is using to grow is my hormones. This is actually a good thing. This way we know where and how the cancer is growing and there is medicine to stop the hormones so the cancer doesn't have food to eat.
My tumor is 1.7x1.3x1.5 cm. Relatively this is a very small tumor even though it feels about the size of a bouncy ball in my chest. (Another reminder to feel your boobs often ladies and men).
I did also have an MRI scan of both breasts to get a better picture of where the cancer was inhabiting. I will describe more of the experience in another post. Dr. DJ told me in the MRI they found another lump of about 7mm. My ducts were also lined with illuminated cells. They can't prove or disprove there is cancer here unless they were to do a biopsy, but if either area came back cancerous the right breast would be unconservable.
At this point I don't know if I will need any additional treatment; whether it be radtiation, chemo, or medicine to help attack my cancer. We will find out this information after my breast tissue is sent to pathology and checked out under the microscope.
For more information on pathology reports: http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/ContentsofaPathologyReport.html
As more develops I will update the status of the cancer living inside of me.
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