Laymans language please!

[DianneS]

Hi ladies,

I'm embarrassed that I still don't quite understand my diagnosis from August 2008! I had my onc 'explain' it once but I think I have a mental block and don't want to hear it. Maybe if I read it I will understand & be able to absorb what it is saying in layman's terms.

Can someone please explain what this diagnosis means? Does it mean I had IDC 50% in situ, or not? Was the cancer confined to the tumour or beginning to spread to surrounding breast tissue? How do they know there is no vascular invasion if it was spreading?

I subsequently had bilateral mastectomies; simple on the left, modified radical on the right. Lymphs were negative.

Here goes from the pathology report:

Specimen No. 2 (right breast tissue) shows the grossly described mass to consist of a poorly differentiated infiltrating ductal carcinoma compatible with 8/9 points according to the SBR grading system (tubule formation 3, nuclear grade 3, mitotic rate 2). This is associated with high-grade ductal carcinoma in situ with comedonecrosis. There are multiple microcalcifications. There is no definitive evidence of vascular space invasion. The in situ component constitutes approximately 50% of the tumour volume and focally exceeds the area of invasive carcinoma by several millimeters. The invasive carcinoma focally approaches the painted surgical margin up to 1 mm and the in situ component is present within a fraction of a millimeter of the painted surgical margin. The background breast tissue shows benign fibrocystic change. Immunohistochemical staining shows the tumour cells of the invasive ductal carcinoma to be weakly positive for estrogen receptors, negative for progesterone receptors and positive for C-erb (3+).

Diagnosis: Right breast -

Excisional biopsy of right breast fine wire localization positive for infiltrating ductal carcinoma with greatest linear tumour dimension 2.1 cm (gross measurement).
High grade ductal carcinoma in situ with comedonecrosis constituting approximately 50% of total tumour volume. Histologic grade of invasive carcinoma. Grade III/III. Invasive carcinoma approaching surgical margin up to 1 mm.
Ductal carcinoma in situ present with a fraction of a millimeter of surgical margin.

I figure that one of my breast cancer sisters might be able to get through to me whether I had IDC or IDC and DCIS. Thank you for your time, you are a great bunch of ladies and I"m glad you're here!

Diannes