breast cancer IDC er 8+ pr 6+ her 2 negative what does this mean? have had mastectomy and node clearance 13 days ago, waiting on results and next treatment plan, likely chemp, then radio but think i read somewhere this is a hormone driven BC and is a common one so likely treatment is used often and successful?
Hi, I have exactly the same diagnosis so I’m interested in the answers you’re going to get.
All my results are back and I have an appointment today where I assume that they’ll give me my treatment plan.
ER and PR are Oestrogen and Progesterone. They look to see if your tumour has receptors for these hormones and score it out of 8. At ER 8, your Cancer ( and mine) loves Oestrogen. I was on HRT and have had to stop taking it. As part of my treatment I’ll be prescribed some kind of hormone blocker.
The good news is that they know for sure that depriving your Cancer of hormones will really have a strong effect.
HER is a protein. Mine is also negative - I was told that was a good thing and it meant that my tumour didn’t need specific targeted treatment for the protein.
Mine is in at least one lymph node.
I’m expecting surgery followed by chemo, because of the lymph node, but won’t know for sure until later today.
I was also told that this is the most common cancer and about 70% of breast cancer is the same as ours.
I took that to mean that my medical team had seen this a million times before, it has been very well researched and the consultants knew exactly what they were doing when it came to treatment 
My diagnosis was er 8, pr 8, her2 negative, so highly hormone receptive. I had bilateral tumours, one was grade 1 (no lymph node involvement), the other grade 2 (with lymph node involvement 4 out of 12 nodes). I had bilateral lumpectomies, followed by chemo. My next step is full axillary clearance at the end of this month (because there were more than three affected lymph nodes).
After surgery, I will have radiotherapy.
The follow-on medication will be abemaciclib (a targeted biological drug) for two years and anastrozole or an alternative hormone-blocker type of medication, for about 7 to 10 years.
It’s certainly a long journey, but we can be more confident these days, as the treatment is so much more targeted to individual cancer types. Although long term, it’s good to know that there is medication available that is specifically targeted to hormone-receptive cancers.
Very best wishes x
Hello mer,
Thanks for posting.
It’s understandable that you are wondering what IDC, ER 8+, PR 6+ and HER2 negative mean and how they impact on treatment and outcomes. You may find our understanding your pathology results booklet helpful.
IDC stands for invasive ductal carcinoma. This means the cancer cells have spread outside of the ducts of the breast and have the potential to spread to other parts of the body. Your mastectomy and node clearance have been performed with the aim of removing all the cancer cells.
As @preferablywithfood says, ER (oestrogen receptor) and PR (progesterone receptor) are both hormone receptors. The pathologist runs tests on cancer tissue to see if it has these receptors and scores each receptor out of 8, with out being the most strongly positive result. People who have hormone receptor positive breast cancer are offered hormone therapy for 5-10 years after their other treatments are completed. Hormone receptor positive breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer.
As @preferablywithfood also says, HER2 (human epidermal growth factor 2) is a protein found on breast cancer cells. Some cancers have higher than normal levels of HER2 on the cells and are called HER2 positive. It is more common for a cancer to be HER negative like yours.
After surgery, all other treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy are given to reduce the risk of cancer coming back (recurrence) in the future. It is important to remember that after treatment, most people’s cancer does not come back.
Your individual risk of cancer returning in the future depends on different characteristics of the cancer, including size, grade, stage and how many lymph nodes are affected. Your treatment team will be able to discuss your own risk in more detail when they have your pathology results after surgery if you would find this helpful.
We offer a range of free supportive services for anyone who has had a diagnosis of breast cancer which you may be interested in. They include face to face and online courses and events.
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Best wishes
Mandy
Breast Care Nurse
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