โI would rather be an ADVOCATE than an INFLUENCERโ
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What The Hell Do DID I Have?
After my initial ultrasounds, mammograms, biopsies and additional scans, I was diagnosed with:
Metaplastic Carcinoma
(mixed invasive ductal and squamous cell carcinoma).
Preliminary grade 3 (gland formation 3, nuclear atypia 3, mitotic count 2) ER and PR negative, HER2 positive.
Metaplastic Breast Cancer
Metaplastic breast cancer is a rare form of breast cancer, accounting for fewer than 1% of all breast cancers. It differs from the more common kinds of breast cancer in both its makeup and in the way it behaves.
Like invasive ductal cancer, metaplastic breast cancer begins in the milk duct of the breast before spreading to the tissue around the duct. What makes a metaplastic tumor different is the kinds of cells that make up the tumor.
Metaplastic breast cancers can also behave more aggressively than other kinds of breast cancers.
Metaplastic tumor cells are often found to be high grade, which means that they look very different from normal cells and are dividing rapidly.
Metaplastic tumors are, on average, larger at diagnosis.
More often than in other kinds of breast cancer, women with metaplastic breast cancer can have metastasis (when the cancer has spread beyond the breast) and may be more likely to recur (come back later in another part of the body).
Invasive Ductal:
Invasive ductal carcinoma is cancer (carcinoma) that happens when abnormal cells growing in the lining of the milk ducts change and invade breast tissue beyond the walls of the duct.
Squamous Cell:
Squamous cell carcinoma is most common in the skin and other organs lined by squamous cells such as the esophagus. Primary SqCC of the breast is very rare accounting less than 0.1% of all invasive breast carcinomas.
My Classifications
Preliminary Grade 3
Gland Formation 3
Nuclear Atypia 3
Mitotic Count 2
Receptors
ER and PR negative
HER2 positive.
Receptors are proteins in or on cells that can attach to certain substances in the blood. Normal breast cells and some breast cancer cells have receptors that attach to the hormones estrogen and progesterone, and need these hormones for the cells to grow.
Hormone receptor-negative (or hormone-negative) breast cancers have no estrogen or progesterone receptors. Treatment with hormone therapy drugs is not helpful for these cancers. These cancers tend to grow faster than hormone receptor-positive cancers. If they come back after treatment, itโs often in the first few years. Hormone receptor-negative cancers are more common in women who have not yet gone through menopause.
HER2 is a protein that helps breast cancer cells grow quickly. Breast cancer cells with higher than normal levels of HER2 are called HER2-positive. These cancers tend to grow and spread faster than breast cancers that are HER2-negative, but are much more likely to respond to treatment with drugs that target the HER2 protein.