What Is Grade 2 In Breast Cancer

How Is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Treated

There are several approaches that can be used when treating this type of breast cancer. Specific treatment depends on the size and location of your tumor, your healing capacity and your personal preferences. Invasive ductal carcinoma treatments include:

Are there side effects of invasive ductal carcinoma treatment?

Yes. As with any cancer treatment, side effects are possible. Your specific experience depends on how advanced your tumor is, where its located and what type of treatment you undergo.

People who have breast cancer surgery may experience infection, blood clots or complications from anesthesia. Those who undergo chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy may have:

• Weight changes.
• Fertility problems.

For patients receiving anti-hormone therapy, the most common side effects are hot flashes, joint pain, weight changes, mood changes, vaginal dryness or discharge and decrease of sexual desire.

You may experience other symptoms, too. Your healthcare provider can tell you what to expect during invasive ductal carcinoma treatment.

How Is Breast Cancer Stage Determined

Breast cancer staging will be determined by the combination of the following:

• TNM system: T describes the size of the tumor, N describes spread to lymph nodes, and M describes metastasis to other sites in the body.

• Receptor status: Breast cancer cells are tested for estrogen receptors , progesterone receptors , and hormone epidermal growth factor receptor 2 .

• Grade: Grade describes what the cancer cells look like when compared to normal cells. This correlates to how aggressive the cancer type is.

Staging And Grading Of Breast Cancer

Knowing the stage and grade of the cancer helps your doctors plan the best treatment for you.

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Your specialist doctor needs certain information about the cancer to advise you on the best treatment for you. This includes:

• the stage of the cancer
• the grade of the cancer
• whether the cancer has receptors for hormones or a protein called HER2.

This information comes from the results of all the tests you have had, including:

• the biopsy, when the tissue was examined
• other tests that were done on the cells.

Your specialist doctor and nurse will talk to you about this. They will explain how it helps you and your doctor decide on your treatment plan.

We understand that waiting to know the stage and grade of your cancer can be a worrying time. We’re here if you need someone to talk to. You can:

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What Should A Person With Stage 3 Breast Cancer Expect From Treatment

Stage 3 treatment options vary widely and may consist of mastectomy and radiation for local treatment and hormone therapy or chemotherapy for systemic treatment. Nearly every person with a Stage 3 diagnosis will do best with a combination of two or more treatments.

Chemotherapy is always given first with the goal to shrink the breast cancer to be smaller within the breast and within the lymph nodes that are affected. This is known as neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Other possible treatments include biologic targeted therapy and immunotherapy. There may be various clinical trial options for interested patients with Stage 3 breast cancer.

What Does It Mean To Have Stage 2 Breast Cancer

Stage 2 means the breast cancer is growing, but it is still contained in the breast or growth has only extended to the nearby lymph nodes.

This stage is divided into groups: Stage 2A and Stage 2B. The difference is determined by the size of the tumor and whether the breast cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.

For Stage 2 breast cancer, chemotherapy is usually done first, followed by surgery and radiation therapy.

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What Does It Mean If My Carcinoma Is Well Differentiated Moderately Differentiated Or Poorly Differentiated

When looking at the cancer cells under the microscope, the pathologist looks for certain features that can help predict how likely the cancer is to grow and spread. These features include the arrangement of the cells in relation to each other, whether they form tubules , how closely they resemble normal breast cells , and how many of the cancer cells are in the process of dividing . These features taken together determine how differentiated the cancer is .

• Well-differentiated carcinomas have relatively normal-looking cells that do not appear to be growing rapidly and are arranged in small tubules for ductal cancer and cords for lobular cancer. These cancers tend to grow and spread slowly and have a better prognosis .
• Poorly differentiated carcinomas lack normal features, tend to grow and spread faster, and have a worse prognosis.
• Moderately differentiated carcinomas have features and a prognosis in between these two.

S Of A Pathology Report

Different pathologists may use different words to describe the same findings. Pathology reports from different labs may be organized differently. But most pathology reports include these sections:

This part of a pathology report includes your name, birth date, and the date you had surgery or a blood draw. Make sure all this information is correct. This section also may include a number assigned to you to help keep your identity safe.

This section includes the pathologists and clinicians contact information, as well as the lab where the testing was done.

This part of a pathology report includes details about the tissue sample, which doctors call a specimen. This section includes the date the specimen was removed, the type of biopsy or surgery that was done, and the type of tissue it is. In many cases, tissue will be taken from the breast and/or the lymph nodes. If its suspected that the cancer has spread to parts of the body away from the breast, tissue may come from other areas, such as the liver or bones.

This section includes information about how the cancer was found and may include other information about your medical history.

This part of a pathology report describes what the pathologist can see with their naked eyes before they look at the removed tissue with a microscope. This usually includes:

The final diagnosis usually describes the type of cancer and will likely include information about:

• anatomic location

Types of invasive carcinoma:

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How A Breast Cancer Grade Is Determined

The Nottingham grading system is an update of the previous grading criteria, the Bloom-Richardson system, which was first established in 1957. Nottingham evaluates the cancer cell structure and distribution to determine how aggressive the malignancy will be.

Low-grade tumors, which look more like normal cells, tend to grow slowly, while high-grade tumors are abnormal-looking and spread quickly.

There are three factors a pathologist will consider when evaluating tumor cells: tubule formation, mitotic rate, and nuclear grade. Each is given a score from 1 to 3 .

These values are then added, the total of which will indicate the tumor grade.

What Is Stage 2 Cancer

Stage 2 cancers are typically larger than stage 1 cancers and/or have spread to nearby lymph nodes. Like stage 1 cancers, stage 2 cancers are typically treated with local therapies such as surgery or radiation therapy.

Stage 2 cancer is determined in the five most common cancers in the following way:

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What Does Invasive Mean

The normal breast is made of ducts that end in a group of sacs . Cancer starts in the cells lining the ducts and lobules, when a normal cell becomes a carcinoma cell. Invasive breast cancer is cancer that has broken through the wall of either a duct or a lobule. The most common form of breast cancer is invasive ductal carcinoma or a cancer that began in a duct and has spread outside the duct. Noninvasive breast cancer is referred to as in situ because it remains in the duct or the lobule. It is considered Stage 0.

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Stage 4 Breast Cancer

Stage 4 breast cancer is also known as secondary breast cancer.

Stage 4 breast cancer means:

• The tumour can be any size
• The lymph nodes may or may not contain cancer cells
• The cancer has spread to other parts of the body such as the bones, lungs, liver or brain

If your cancer is found in the lymph nodes under the arm but nowhere else in the body you do not have stage 4 breast cancer.

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What Is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

Invasive ductal carcinoma begins when abnormal cells form in your milk ducts and spread to other parts of your breast tissue. Its the most common type of breast cancer, making up about 80% of all breast cancer cases. Invasive ductal carcinoma is also the type of breast cancer that most commonly affects men . This condition is sometimes called ductal carcinoma, infiltrating ductal carcinoma or IDC breast cancer.

What Do Cancer Stages And Grades Mean

The stage of a cancer describes the size of a tumour and how far it has spread from where it originated. The grade describes the appearance of the cancerous cells.

If you’re diagnosed with cancer, you may have more tests to help determine how far it has progressed. Staging and grading the cancer will allow the doctors to determine its size, whether it has spread and the best treatment options.

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Stage 1b Breast Cancer Means One Of The Following Descriptions Applies:

Lymph nodes have cancer evidence with small clusters of cells between the approximate size of a pinprick to the approximate width of a grain of rice .

AND EITHER No actual tumor is found in the breast.

OR The tumor is smaller than the approximate size of a peanut .

Similar to stage 0, breast cancer at this stage is very treatable and survivable. When breast cancer is detected early, and is in the localized stage , the 5-year relative survival rate is 100%.

What Is Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

Ductal Carcinoma in Situ , also known as intraductal carcinoma, accounts for one of every five new breast cancer diagnoses. Its an uncontrolled growth of cells within the breast ducts. Its noninvasive, meaning it hasnt grown into the breast tissue outside of the ducts. The phrase in situ means in its original place.

DCIS is the earliest stage at which breast cancer can be diagnosed. Its known as stage 0 breast cancer. The vast majority of women diagnosed with it can be cured.

Even though its noninvasive, it can lead to invasive cancer. Its important that women with the disease get treatment. Research shows that the risk of getting invasive cancer is low if youve been treated for DCIS. If it isnt treated, 30% to 50% of women with DCIS will get invasive cancer. The invasive cancer usually develops in the same breast and in the same area as where the DCIS happened.

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How Does Tumor Grade Affect A Patients Treatment Options

Doctors use tumor grade and other factors, such as cancer stage and a patients age and general health, to develop a treatment plan and to determine a patients prognosis . Generally, a lower grade indicates a better prognosis. A higher-grade cancer may grow and spread more quickly and may require immediate or more aggressive treatment.

The importance of tumor grade in planning treatment and determining a patients prognosis is greater for certain types of cancer, such as soft tissue sarcoma, primary brain tumors, and breast and prostate cancer.

Patients should talk with their doctor for more information about tumor grade and how it relates to their treatment and prognosis.

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Related Resources

Additional And Relevant Useful Information For Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Of Breast :

• Japan is an exception of a developed nation with lowered incidences of breast cancer, unlike European nations and America.
• Current studies have shown that aromatase inhibitors, medications that block estrogen hormonal effects in the body, reduce the risk of recurrence of breast cancer. Recent studies have shown that treatment using aromatase inhibitors can be given up to 10 years without affecting the quality of life of women
• Tumors that are negative for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2/neu have worse prognosis. Such tumors are called âtriple-negativeâ tumors

The following DoveMed website links are useful resources for additional information:

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Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

DCIS is the most common type of noninvasive breast cancer, with about 60,000 new cases diagnosed in the United States each year. About one in every five new breast cancer cases is ductal carcinoma in situ.

Also called intraductal carcinoma or stage 0 breast cancer, its considered a noninvasive breast cancer. With DCIS, abnormal and cancerous cells havent spread from the ducts into nearby breast tissue nor anywhere else, such as the lymph nodes.

DCIS is divided into several subtypes, mainly according to the appearance of the tumor. These subtypes include micropapillary, papillary, solid, cribriform and comedo.

Patients with ductal carcinoma in situ are typically at higher risk for seeing their cancer return after treatment, although the chance of a recurrence is less than 30 percent. Most recurrences occur within five to 10 years after the initial diagnosis and may be invasive or noninvasive. DCIS also carries a heightened risk for developing a new breast cancer in the other breast. A recurrence of ductal carcinoma in situ would require additional treatment.

The type of therapy selected may affect the likelihood of recurrence. Treating DCIS with a lumpectomy , and without radiation therapy, carries a 25 percent to 35 percent chance of recurrence. Adding radiation therapy to the treatment decreases this risk to about 15 percent. Currently, the long-term survival rate for women with ductal carcinoma in situ is nearly 100 percent.

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Stage 3 Breast Cancer

Stage 3 breast cancer is divided into three groups:

• Stage 3A
• Stage 3C

Stage 3A can mean:

No cancer is seen in the breast, but cancer is found in four to nine lymph nodes under the arm or near the breastbone

The cancer in the breast measures up to 5cm and cancer is found in four to nine lymph nodes under the arm or near the breastbone

The cancer in the breast is larger than 5cm, and cancer is found in up to three lymph nodes under the arm or near the breastbone.

Stage 3B means the cancer in the breast can be any size and has spread to the skin of the breast or chest wall. Cancer is found in up to nine lymph nodes under the arm or near the breast bone.

Stage 3C means the cancer in the breast can be any size, may have spread to the skin of the breast or chest wall and cancer is found in 10 or more lymph nodes under the arm or near the breastbone, or to nodes above or below the collarbone.

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What If My Report On Ductal Carcinoma In Situ Mentions Margins Or Ink

When the entire area of DCIS is removed, the outside surface of the specimen is coated with ink, sometimes even with different colors of ink on different sides of the specimen. The pathologist looks at slides of the DCIS under the microscope to see how close the DCIS cells get to the ink . If DCIS is touching the ink , it can mean that some DCIS cells were left behind, and more surgery or other treatments may be needed. Sometimes, though, the surgeon has already removed more tissue to help make sure that this isnt needed. If your pathology report shows DCIS with positive margins, your doctor will talk to you about what treatment is best.

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How Is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Diagnosed

Your healthcare provider will perform a physical examination. In addition to feeling for lumps in your breast, they may also feel for swollen lymph nodes in your underarm area.

In most cases, invasive ductal carcinoma is found during routine mammograms. If your healthcare provider thinks you may have IDC, they may order other tests, including:

• Magnetic resonance imaging . This imaging test uses radio waves and magnets to produce detailed pictures of your breast tissue.
• Ultrasound. Using high-frequency sound waves, an ultrasound provides clear images of your internal organs and other tissues.
• Biopsy. Your healthcare provider takes a small sample of your breast tissue with a needle. The sample is then sent to a pathology lab for further testing.

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Diagnosis Or Final Diagnosis

This is the most important section of the report. It gives the pathologists final diagnosis and may include information on the tumor such as size, type, grade, hormone receptor status and HER2 status.

If lymph nodes were removed, the status of these lymph nodes will also be included.

This information may appear grouped together or as separate sections.

Survival Rates Of Stage 1 And Stage 2 Breast Cancer

According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the earlier breast cancer is first diagnosed, the better the outcome. The survival rates of people diagnosed with breast cancer have also improved over time due to earlier detection and improvements in treatment. Most people with early stage breast cancer can be treated successfully.

You may wish to discuss your prognosis and treatment options with your doctors. However, it is not possible to predict the exact course of your cancer and how long you will live. The length of survival can vary from person to person. Factors that influence this include:

• Response to treatment
• The type of breast cancer that you have
• The rate of tumour growth
• Other factors such as your age, medical history and overall health.

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