Is as follows: Clinical Stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma; grade 3; triple negative – HER2 negative. 2 centimeters in size.
What in the hell does that mean?
Stage 1 – caught early. They’ll maybe be able to figure out how long I’ve had it. Probably 2-5 years? Maybe?
Invasive – just as it sounds. It’s gone beyond where it should be and invading the surrounding tissue.
Ductal – it started in my milk ducts. If I’d used them for their proper purpose – feeding babies – would it have never started? We’ll never know. That’s the fun part about cancer. No one knows what the hell actually causes it.
Carcinoma – medical term for cancer.
Grade 3 – also called ‘poorly differentiated.’ The cells look very different than the surrounding cells, and disorganized and divide quickly. My cancer is scatterbrained. Just like me!
Triple negative – my cancer is negative for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and excess HER2 protein. Basically, my cancer will not respond well to hormonal therapies.
What is a HER2 protein? Human epidermal growth factor 2. It’s a gene that they know plays a role in breast cancer development, but is also part of healthy breast cell growth. Mine is broken or something. This type of cancer is aggressive, but usually responds well to treatment I have been told. I’ve also read that is the case. Suggested reading sites: breastcancer.org and breast360.org
What are the treatments? Based on the current size? Maybe chemotherapy + surgery. Or It could be surgery + chemotherapy. Or…? These are things that will be coming in the future.
What kind of surgery? Lumpectomy or mastectomy? We will talk through this. I’m going to do whatever makes the most sense. If chopping them off is the best bet? Ta-ta, tatas! The people who love me don’t care as long as I get better.
I will also be getting genetic testing to look for the BRCA genes. They are BRCA1 and BRCA2, BReast CAncer gene 1 and 2 – someone was very inventive on the naming of these. Respect. This testing is not standard with breast cancers but I am not standard. I am under 40, family history, etc. and stuff.