overwhelmed, but hopeful and trying to understand all of this!

smlowry7

Hello!

I'm new to this site and I'm not only looking to receive and give support, but obtain more info on my diagnosis. I was breastfeeding when I noticed a mass, my son preferred to eat off my left breast and the mass was in my right. I had never been able to pump as much from my right side and when we started weaning I treated it as a blocked duct. With weaning came some engorgement as expected so it was hard to differentiate between that and the mass growing vs enlarged ducts. I had my one year post delivery appt at the end of January and expressed concerns to my OBGYN about the mass and it growing. I had an us and mammogram on 2/3/16 and it showed a large mass, but they were unable to determine if it was related to breastfeeding. I had two biopsies on my R breast on 2/9/16 and also my lymph node that was enlarged on the US. The results are as follows:

1. R breast central bx: IDC, grade 2/3, Nottingham score 6/9, DCIS present, ER+ 100%, PR+ 90%, HER2+ 3+, KI-67 index high (25% positive nuclei)
2. R breast medial bx: IDC, grade 2/3, Nottingham score 6/9, DCIS negative, ER+ 100%, PR+ 95%, HER2 -, KI-67 index variable, but high (40% positive nuclei)
3. R axilary lymph node bx: metastatic adenocarcinoma, morphologically identical to tumor in each of the breast biopsies.
4. *comment: The R central biopsy shows marked intramural heterogeneity with regard to overexertion of HER2 membrane protein - most of the tumor is completely negative, but 10% of the tumor cells show strong membrane reactivity. As such, while there is heterogeneous pattern of staining, the overall result is regarded as positive.

I have spoken with my breast cancer navigator and have an appt with the medical oncologist on Monday, 2/15/16. I know I will find out a whole lot more then, but in the meantime, being an ICU RN isn't helping my patience! I was told that the MO has requested my slides because the images appear to show it as one large tumor, but the pathology is reading as two different types with the HER2 and KI-67 indexes being different.

Has anyone had similar findings? Any info is helpful and God bless everyone on here that had battled or supported someone with the diagnosis!

Moderators

Dear smlowry7,

Welcome to the community. We are very sorry about your cancer diagnosis but very glad that you reached out here and hope that you will find support and information. AS you wait for some responses here is a link to information on our site about Pathology Reports. We hope this is helpful. Stay connected here and keep us posted about your Med onc visit. The Mods