How Fast Does Breast Cancer Grow

What Is Triple Negative Breast Cancer

TNBC is:

• Progesterone receptor-negative
• HER2-negative

Triple negative/basal-like tumors are a molecular subtype of breast cancer. Basal-like tumors have cells that look similar to those of the outer cells surrounding the mammary ducts.

Most triple negative tumors are basal-like .

About 10-20 percent of all breast cancers are TNBC or basal-like tumors .

These tumors tend to occur more often in :

• Younger women
• Black, non-Hispanic Black and African American women

TNBC may also be more common among Hispanic women compared to white and non-Hispanic white women .

Hormones Make Some Breast Tumors Grow Faster

The hormones öestrogen and progesterone can boost the growth of breast cancer cells. “It is therefore crucial to find out whether a tumor is growing in a hormone-dependent manner or not”, says Professor Dr. Wolfgang Janni, Director of the Womens Clinic at the University Hospital in Ulm. “So you examine whether the tumor is hormone receptor positive. If this is the case, an anti-hormonal therapy is initiated.” This means that a tumor that grows due to hormones can be slowed or stopped in its growth by withdrawing hormones. Appropriate drugs are available for this purpose this is also referred to as endocrine therapy. Sometimes chemotherapy can be dispensed with in this way.

Do Breast Cancer Lumps Grow Fast

Age at diagnosis: Breast cancers in young women tend to grow more rapidly than breast cancers in older women and have a higher tumor grade.

Menopausal state: Breast tumors often grow more rapidly for women who are premenopausal than for those who are postmenopausal, likely due to estrogen in the body..

Also Check: Can Stage 3 Breast Cancer Be Cured

What Are The Different Grades Of Breast Cancer

There are three grades of invasive breast cancer:

• Grade 1 looks most like normal breast cells and is usually slow growing
• Grade 2 looks less like normal cells and is growing faster
• Grade 3 looks different to normal breast cells and is usually fast growing

Sometimes the grade given to a cancer after a biopsy can change after surgery. This is because after surgery theres more tissue for the pathologist to look at, which can give them more detailed information about the cancer.

Survival Rate For Patients With Triple

Triple-negative breast cancer is considered aggressive, or fast-growing, but it is treatable. Survival depends on factors such as how advanced the cancer was at diagnosis, your overall health, and your response to treatment.

When assessing survival, researchers use a 5-year marker to make predictions about if cancer will reoccur.

According to the American Cancer Society, if any type of breast cancer is found to be stage 1, the 5-year survival rate is nearly 100%. Stage 2 breast cancer survival is about 93%, stage 3 is 72%, and metastasized or grade 4 breast cancer has about a 22% chance of survival. Keep in mind most triple-negative breast cancers are stage 3 when found.

Its important to note that the survival rates may be higher than this data suggests because new treatments are becoming available through clinical research.

Donât Miss: What Do Breast Cancer Patients Need

You May Like: Estrogen Induced Breast Cancer

Types Of Male Breast Cancer

NYU Langone doctors determine what type of breast cancer a man has based on the appearance of tumor cells under a microscope. They also study the molecular characteristics of tumors, including how sensitive they are to the hormones estrogen and progesterone and whether they produce abnormal proteins that help cells to divide uncontrollably. Doctors also evaluate how quickly the cancer is growing.

Male breast cancer is usually one of the following types.

Treatment For Inflammatory Breast Cancer

The treatment for inflammatory breast cancer can be slightly different to other types of breast cancer.

Chemotherapy

You usually have chemotherapy as your first treatment. This is called neo adjuvant chemotherapy. It helps to control the cancer cells in the breast and reduces the swelling. It also aims to destroy any cancer cells that might have spread elsewhere in the body.

Surgery

After chemotherapy you have surgery unless there is a reason why this isn’t suitable for you. You are most likely to have your whole breast removed .

Some women might be able to have breast conserving surgery. For this type of surgery, the surgeon removes the area of cancer and a surrounding area of healthy tissue. But for most women, mastectomy is the best option.

The surgeon usually removes the lymph nodes under your armpit.

Radiotherapy

After surgery you have radiotherapy to the remaining breast tissue. This is to help stop the cancer coming back.

Other drug treatment you may have

You have hormone therapy tablets for some years if your breast cancer has hormone receptors. Your doctor might recommend that you also have targeted cancer therapy, such as trastuzumab and pertuzumab, if your cancer has receptors for those drugs.

Breast reconstruction

You may be able to have breast reconstruction after you have finished your treatment . Do ask your surgeon, they can tell you whether this is suitable for you.

• Find out about breast cancer treatments

Read Also: De Novo Metastatic Breast Cancer Symptoms

How Does Cancer Spread Beyond The Breast

Breast cancer can invade through nearby tissue, or spread through the body via the lymphatic system and blood.

• Tissue: the cancer spreads from the original site and grows into nearby areas .
• Lymphatic system: breast cancer cells break away from the original site and can enter nearby lymph tubes , grow in nearby lymph nodes or travel through lymph vessels to other parts of the body.
• Blood: breast cancer cells break away from the original site and can enter and travel through nearby blood vessels to other parts of the body.

Receptors For Secondary Breast Cancer

Breast cancer cells may have receptors . Hormones, or a protein called HER2, can attach to the receptors and encourage the cells to grow. A doctor called a pathologist tests cancer cells taken during a biopsy or surgery for these receptors. Your doctor uses the results of these tests to help plan your treatment.

If you have had primary breast cancer before, the receptors may not be the same as when you were first diagnosed. This may mean different treatments are useful. Your doctor may be able to diagnose a secondary cancer from your scan results. But they may still recommend a biopsy to find out more about the cancer cell receptors.Cancer that does not have receptors for either hormones or HER2 is called triple negative breast cancer.

Also Check: Stage 3b Breast Cancer Prognosis

Where Do These Numbers Come From

The American Cancer Society relies on information from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute , to provide survival statistics for different types of cancer.

The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for breast cancer in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by AJCC TNM stages . Instead, it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages:

• Localized: There is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the breast.
• Regional: The cancer has spread outside the breast to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
• Distant: The cancer has spread to distant parts of the body such as the lungs, liver or bones.

What Are The 4 Stages Of Cancer

The stages of cancer were developed to explain both the size and spread of the disease. The lower the number, the better. Although there are technically five stages, oncologists are only needed for four of these. This is because stage 0 just means that there is a growth with the potential to become cancerous, but it has yet to develop into cancer. This is known as a carcinoma in situ. The 4 stages of concern are:

Read Also: Is Breast Cancer Considered Internal Cancer

Treatment Should Begin Without Delay

Inflammatory breast cancer needs treatment as soon as possible. However, because of the unique properties it is recommended that an oncologist with experience in inflammatory breast cancer heads the treatment and management team.

Management of inflammatory breast cancer requires a combined-modality approach to therapy.

What Are The Worst Cancers To Get

Top 5 Deadliest CancersProstate Cancer. U.S. deaths in 2014: 29,480. How common is it? Pancreatic Cancer. U.S. deaths in 2014: 39,590. How common is it? Breast Cancer. U.S. deaths in 2014: 40,430. How common is it? Colorectal Cancer. U.S. deaths in 2014: 50,310. How common is it? Lung Cancer. U.S. deaths in 2014: 159,260.

Don’t Miss: Stage 1b Breast Cancer Prognosis

Mortality Rates And The Good News

In the past, IBC has a poor survival rate. Indeed, the 5-year overall survival rate was less than 5% with a median rate of just 15 months. One of the reasons for the low survival rate is that IBC is often at a late stage at the diagnosis.

Sadly, IBC has often already spread to the lymph nodes on diagnosis.

However, according to a more recent research study, over the last 30 years survival rates for IBC have improved significantly. The 15 year survival rate is now around 20% to 30%.

Specialists believe that the improvement in survival rates for breast cancer is due to changes in treatment.

These changes include:-

• Preoperative chemotherapy surgery
• Radiation treatment.
• An improvement in the understanding of IBC on a molecular level over the last ten years.

In addition, a 2015 study compares survival trends of women with inflammatory breast cancer before and after the year 2006. The 3-year survival rate for those treated for IBC before October 2006 was around 63%. In comparison, for cases of IBC after 2006 the 3-year survival rate has risen to 82%.

The above statistics, are again, a testimony to the improvement in targeted treatment, in this case, particularly HER-2 therapy.

What Clinical Trials Are Available For Women With Inflammatory Breast Cancer

NCI sponsors clinical trials of new treatments for all types of cancer, as well as trials that test better ways to use existing treatments. Participation in clinical trials is an option for many patients with inflammatory breast cancer, and all patients with this disease are encouraged to consider treatment in a clinical trial.

Descriptions of ongoing clinical trials for individuals with inflammatory breast cancer can be accessed by searching NCIs list of cancer clinical trials. NCIs list of cancer clinical trials includes all NCI-supported clinical trials that are taking place across the United States and Canada, including the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. For information about how to search the list, see Help Finding NCI-Supported Clinical Trials.

People interested in taking part in a clinical trial should talk with their doctor. Information about clinical trials is available from NCIs Cancer Information Service at 18004CANCER and in the NCI booklet Taking Part in Cancer Treatment Research Studies. Additional information about clinical trials is available online.

Selected References

Recommended Reading: Tubular Cancer Of The Breast

How Fast Does Metastatic Breast Cancer Spread

Like all cells, breast cancer cells grow by cellular division. But because cancer cells are mutated, their growth rate can be difficult to predict.

According to the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center at Providence Portland Medical Center, breast cancer cells need to divide at least 30 times before they are detectable by physical exam.

Each division takes about 1 to 2 months, so a detectable tumor has likely been growing in the body for 2 to 5 years.

Generally speaking, the more cells divide, the bigger the tumor grows. The larger the tumor, the greater the odds that it may invade nearby tissues, the lymphatic system, or the circulatory system, and spread to other organs.

Breast cancer grading and staging can provide some clues to how aggressive your cancer is.

Grade 3 breast cancer is likely to spread faster than grade 1 or 2, for example.

that can affect how quickly your breast cancer may spread include:

• the

are the two primary metrics used to assess breast cancer.

More Information About The Tnm Staging System

The T category describes the original tumor:

• TX means the tumor can’t be assessed.
• T0 means there isn’t any evidence of the primary tumor.
• Tis means the cancer is “in situ” .
• T1, T2, T3, T4: These numbers are based on the size of the tumor and the extent to which it has grown into neighboring breast tissue. The higher the T number, the larger the tumor and/or the more it may have grown into the breast tissue.

The N category describes whether or not the cancer has reached nearby lymph nodes:

• NX means the nearby lymph nodes can’t be assessed, for example, if they were previously removed.
• N0 means nearby lymph nodes do not contain cancer.
• N1, N2, N3: These numbers are based on the number of lymph nodes involved and how much cancer is found in them. The higher the N number, the greater the extent of the lymph node involvement.

The M category tells whether or not there is evidence that the cancer has traveled to other parts of the body:

• MX means metastasis can’t be assessed.
• M0 means there is no distant metastasis.
• M1 means that distant metastasis is present.

You May Like: Anne Hathaway Boob Job

How Long Does It Take For Stage 1 Breast Cancer To Metastasize

Breast cancer has to divide 30 times before it can be felt. Up to the 28th cell division, neither you nor your doctor can detect it by hand. With most breast cancers, each division takes one to two months, so by the time you can feel a cancerous lump, the cancer has been in your body for two to five years.

How Long Does It Take For Breast Cancer To Grow My Doctor Just Examined My Breasts A Month Ago And Today I Found A Lump Is It Possible That Breast Cancer Could Have Developed So Quickly

Answer from the expert staff of breast cancer research at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center at Providence Portland Medical Center:

Like a lot of cancers, breast cancer grows by simple cell division. It begins as one malignant cell, which then divides and becomes two bad cells, which divide again and become four bad cells, and so on. Breast cancer has to divide 30 times before it can be felt. Up to the 28th cell division, neither you nor your doctor can detect it by hand.

With most breast cancers, each division takes one to two months, so by the time you can feel a cancerous lump, the cancer has been in your body for two to five years. It can certainly seem like a lump appeared out of nowhere especially if you or your doctor have recently examined your breasts and not felt anything suspicious but in reality, the cancer has simply doubled that one last time necessary to be noticeable. By the time you can feel it, a breast tumor is usually a little more than one-half inch in size about a third the size of a golf ball. It has also been in your body long enough to have had a chance to spread.

Its important to realize that there are two types of mammograms:

You May Like: Did Anne Hathaway Have Breast Cancer

Can You Tell When Exactly My Breast Cancer Started

Often times, one of the most frequently asked questions I get when someone is diagnosed with breast cancer is when did it begin? says Roesch. And the general rule is that we really cant tell for sure when the cancer popped up. We can look at the subtype of breast cancer to perhaps get a better understanding if it was weeks vs. months for example, but theres no way to tell for sure.

Causes Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer

The risk factors for triple negative breast cancer are not clear. Some breast cancers depend on hormones to grow. These can be linked with risk factors to do with hormones and having children. But triple negative breast cancer does not seem to share these risk factors.

Most women with triple negative breast cancer have no strong history of breast cancer in their family . But some women with triple negative breast cancer have an altered BRCA1 gene. This will have been inherited from a parent.

An altered BRCA 1 gene can cause breast cancer to run in families. Most breast cancers caused by BRCA1 are triple negative.

If you have triple negative breast cancer, you may be offered genetic testing. This is even if you do not have a family history of breast cancer. Your cancer doctor or breast care nurse can explain more about this to you.

The tests are the same as for any type of breast cancer. You usually have a:

• Mammogram

  A mammogram is an x-ray of the breast.

• Ultrasound scan

  An ultrasound scan uses sound waves to produce a picture of the breast tissue and the lymph nodes in the armpit.

• Breast biopsy

  When you have a breast biopsy, your cancer doctor or breast care nurse takes small samples of cells or tissue from your breast. The samples are looked at under a microscope to check for cancer cells. They also do other tests to find out if the cells have receptors for hormones, or for HER2.

See also

Also Check: Stage 4 Breast Cancer Life Expectancy Without Treatment