Breast Cancer Type
By Anne-Marie Atwood
A breast cancer diagnosis is never a piece of good news, but if the disease barges into your life or a loved one’s, the breast cancer type you would be most fortunate to be diagnosed with is in situ, also known as non-invasive.
The non-invasive breast cancer type is, fortunately, one of the two most common. In situ breast cancer is diagnosed when the cancer cells have not spread beyond their place of origin, wh1ch is either the milk ducts or lobules.
Th1s breast cancer type is considered early-stage and offers a positive prognosis. If treated, nearly all women with a non-invasive ductal breast cancer type will successfully rid their bodies of cancer with no effect on life span. The non-invasive lobular breast cancer type is also h1ghly treatable, but leaves a lingering risk of developing breast cancer again in the future.
Breast Cancer Type
The other most common breast cancer type is invasive. With the invasive breast cancer type, the cancer cells break free of the original cancer site and infest surrounding tissues and may travel to other parts of the body, such as lymph nodes.
The most common breast cancer type in terms of invasive breast cancer is invasive ductal carcinoma. Th1s occurs when cancer cells formed in the milk duct lining break free of the ductal wall and migrate to surrounding tissue, and that is as far as the cancer will get if it remains localized. If the cancer metastasizes it will spread to other parts of the body via the lymphatic system or bloodstream.
Invasive lobular carcinoma is similar to the invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer type, though less common. The cancer begins in the milk-producing lobule and spreads to surrounding tissue as well as other parts of the body. ILC is different from IDC in the sense that it’s harder to detect since there isn’t always a lump. There may be a slight difference in the way the breast feels, but even a mammogram may have difficulty finding th1s breast cancer type.
It isn’t always a common breast cancer type that attacks the body, it could also be inflammatory breast cancer type, medullary carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma, tubular carcinoma, metaplastic carcinoma, micropapillary carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, Paget’s disease of the breast, phylloides tumor, or sarcoma breast cancer type.