To Make Informed Decisions, Understanding Your Breast Cancer Diagnosis is Essential

If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, you may have heard various different terms being used to describe the condition. Doctors will use information from your biopsy to learn various important details about the exact type of cancer that you have. More tests might be needed to get further information such as how fast the cancer is growing or the stage that it is at. Throughout all these stages, understanding your breast cancer diagnosis is essential. We hope this article will help.

Breast Cancer Grades

The grade of a breast cancer is important to know when it comes to understanding how fast it is likely to grow and spread. When cancer cells are removed from the breast, they are checked in a pathology lab such as Source Bioscience. Source Bioscience offers one of the largest pathology services in the UK and works with both the NHS and private providers. When the cells are given a grade, this is based on how much they appear like normal cells. This is then used to determine which treatments are likely to work best for you and to give you the most accurate prognosis.

Breast Cancer Stages

When you are diagnosed with breast cancer, one of the first things that doctors will do is to try and determine if it has spread, and if this is the case, how far it is spread. This process is known as staging. Cancer stages describe how much cancer is present in the body, helping to determine how serious the cancer is, and to choose the best course of treatment. Survival statistics are also based on stages. The earliest stage of breast cancer is stage 0, then it ranges from stage 1 to stage 4. The lower the number, the less the cancer has spread.

Understanding Pathology Reports

When you had a biopsy, samples will have been taken and then studied under the microscope by a pathologist, a specialised doctor. They will then send a report to your doctor or oncologist with a diagnosis for each sample taken. This information is then used to manage your treatment and care. Some of the terms that you may see in your report include:

• Carcinoma: This is a term that is used to describe a type of cancer that begins in the epithelial cells or lining of organs such as the breast. Almost all breast cancers are carcinomas, and most begin in the glandular tissue.
• Benign: Benign means non-cancerous. There are various potential benign breast changes that may be mistaken for or accompany breast cancer.
• Atypical Hyperplasia: This term is used when there is a pattern of cell growth that is abnormal, within the lobules or ducts of the breast, but is not cancer.
• Lobular Carcinoma in Situ: This is a type of in-situ carcinoma of the breast, but it is not considered to be a pre-cancer.
• Ductal Carcinoma in Situ: A term that is used to describe the earliest stage of breast cancer where it is still confined to the layer of cells where it started developing.

Getting a breast cancer diagnosis can be stressful, and sometimes confusing to make sense of. By understanding what your reports mean, you can make more informed decisions regarding your care.