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It's difficult to know where on your report this information is. Some labs just report your grade and the grade is determined as such:
They subjectively measure histological grade - this is how the cancer cells look. A score of 1 means it is abnormal but looks very close to a normal cell. A score of 2 means it is more abnormal looking (in the middle) and a 3 means very abnormal looking. The nuclear grade - this is how the nucleus of the cancer cell looks in comparison to a normal nucleus. Scoring is the same as that of the whole cell (ie: histological grade). The last thing to be scored is the mitotic index. This is the rate of cell division going on within the slide they are looking at. A score of 1 is that it is dividing faster than normal cells but not super fast. A score of 3 means extreme cell division and a score of 2 is inbetween. Then they add up your scores for the Nottingham grade. Like I said before, I had a 3 histological, a 2 for nuclear and a 1 for mitotic so that's a 6/9. For grade 1 cancer the score is 3-5, grade 2 is 6-7 and grade 3 is 8-9. So if all you know is that you were grade 3 cancer, you can kind of figure out your scores as they would add up to 8 or 9.
Some pathology labs measure and report Ki67 which is another way to measure the rate that the cells are dividing but since my lab did not do it this way, I don't know anything about it.
Someone asked about my hormone status. I am ER+ 50% but I am considered PR negative as my pathology report says less than 5%.
I hope this has helped.
Kind regards
Becky
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