Hi, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November, been told I had a tumour which was approx 4cm and aggresive. I have now had a copy of the medical letter sent to my insurance company and am trying to understand the wording so I know what stage it is. It says:- Poorly differentiated invasvive ductal carcinoma, Grade 3, T2 N0 M0 ER 5 PR 0 HER 2 negative. thanks everyone xx Ness xx
Hiya
I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I think T 2 is your tumour because it is iver 2 cm. I think T1 is under 2 cm. N 0 is no nodes. M 0is no metastises. ER 5 is a score out of 8 as to how receptive your tumour is to oestrogen. Pr 0 means not receptive to progesterone . Her negative means your tumour does not need herceptin and poorly differentiated as the same as saying grade 3 cells.
Overall I would say that makes it a stage 2 because the tumour was over 2 cm and grade 3.
Hope that makes sense. Please someone say if I am wrong.
Debx
BCC have a publication on understanding your path report, there is a good explanation also on the cancer research site. Poorly differentiated cells = grade 3, ER is your estrogen receptor status (points out of 8), PR negative and HER2 negative means you don’t need Herceptin. The TNM staging relates to the size of tumour, lymph node status and whether it has spread. So your tumour is between 2-5 cm with no spread to nodes or mets, adding up to a stage 2a. Hope this helps. X
I’d say Deb has got it pretty darn accurate! So you do have an oestregen receptive cancer - so hormone therapy after any other treatment is prob. on cards - tamoxifen or similar depending on whether you were pre or post menopausal at time of dx.
No nodes is great news for you xxxx
Hi Nessp,
Just had a peek and there is a good pdf here. breastcancercare.org.uk/upload/pdf/pathology___feb_08_0.pdf
Cat x
hi Ness, hope your feeling ok.Poorly differentiated is how the cells look under microscope they are graded 1,2 or 3 depending how normal the cells look.T2=Tumor is between 2 and 5 centimeters N0 = No spread to lymph nodes M0 = No distant metastases (cancer hasn’t spread). ER stands for oestrogen reseptive they scale this between 1 to 8 and yours is 5 so you will probably have Tamoxifen or similar drug to block the oestrogen (which is not a bad thing as it is another treatment to help stop the cancer coming back). Its good that your nodes are clear too 
wishing you all the best with your treatment love Melxx
Sorry, took me so long to post,I have repeated what others have said lol x
hi thanks everyone, thats a great help. Im currently have FECx4 then changing to docetaxel which Im not looking forward to,will have to have at least 2 maybe 4, depending on how the tumour has shrunk. Treatment been ok on FEC, side effects only sickness, constipation and tiredness, so not too bad really. thanks again Ness xxx