I have a question about breast cancer?!
Question: After a woman has a lumpectomy, does the doctors send her tumor over to a lab to have it examined to examine the cancer cells? What if there are no cancer cells present in the tumor does that mean that the woman has been misdiagnosed with having cancer? Also is a estrogen negative and progesterone negative faster growing tumors or slower growing and do all stage 1 breast cancer patients with this tumor have to have chemothrapy?
Answers: After a woman has a lumpectomy, does the doctors send her tumor over to a lab to have it examined to examine the cancer cells? What if there are no cancer cells present in the tumor does that mean that the woman has been misdiagnosed with having cancer? Also is a estrogen negative and progesterone negative faster growing tumors or slower growing and do all stage 1 breast cancer patients with this tumor have to have chemothrapy?
1) Yes, the specimen would go to pathology for examination.
2) If no cancer cells were present, assuming a correct diagnosis, then there is no cancer (unless of course you had a biopsy prior to lumpectomy which showed cancer, in which case the biopsy may have removed all of the cancer).
3) Estrogen receptor (ER) - and progesterone receptor (PR) - tumors are more aggressive generally, particularly in younger women, and if the Her-2 protein is negative (what we call a triple negative), then the tumors are even more aggressive in behavior. Not that Her-2 + tumors are benign, but at least there is a specific agent (trastuzumab or Herceptin) for those.
4) All women would not have to take chemotherapy; however there would be no other treatment options as hormonal therapy is not a choice. Chemotherapy would be the only option to lower risk for recurrence.
This is a complicated discussion (generally an hour in my office) and you need to have it with your oncologist.
God bless, best wishes.