Deciphering my path report

3monstmama

mmm, make that trying to decipher my path report.

I am still on the fence.  I am still thinking a second opinion would be good but can't begin to figure out how to pick someone....I am also "slightly" distracted by the fact that on Wednesday I have to have two more biopsys only these are of my thyroid not my bad boobies.....I did manage to ask the endochronologist lots of good questions about if the thyroid issues turned out to be cancerous so at least I can ask some surgeons some questions . . .

In the meantime, I have my pathology report and am attempting to figure that out.  It seems they ran a ER/PR test on me and have results but I don't understand them.   And yes, I should have asked my surgeon but as I said before, I was so happy about the lack of liver cancer, I forgot to ask anything. . .

It says:

""ER:  100% of tumor cells positive, in situ carcinoma

PR:  50% of tumor cells positive, in situ carcinoma"

Aside from something else crappy, what the heck does that mean?

Thank you.

sbmolee

Hi -Your pathology will include testing/results for hormone receptors. Hormone receptors test to see if the cancer is sensitive to estrogen and progesterone. If a tumor is estrogen-receptor positive (ER-positive), it is more likely to grow in a high-estrogen environment. ER-negative tumors are usually not affected by the levels of estrogen and progesterone in your body. ER-positive cancers are more likely to respond to anti-estrogen therapies such as Tamoxifen.    

sweatyspice

100% of your tumor cells are sensitive to estrogen (ER) and 50% of them are also sensitive to progesterone (PR).

Also, apparently all they found were DCIS (in situ) cells, since there was no mention of invasive carcinoma.

3monstmama

Thank you! so helpful.  I guess that means tamoxifan or something in my future maybe......what is the impact of being not yet in menopause--when I had my hysterectomy, we left the ovaries. That said, I was never really good at noticing when my period was coming--never had alot of symptoms--so I'm not sure where I am on the menopause progression.  Can they give me some sort of test as to hormone levels

 hmmm, I think I need to try calling the surgeon and chatting with a list of questions in front of me.