Yesterday I met with my Medical Oncologist, Scott Christensen for probably over an hour.  It was a long, informative, a little overwhelming, interesting conversation full of questions, answers, and "what-ifs".  He was very thorough in explaining what type of breast cancer I have and the treatment options.  I will not be as thorough because I can't find the piece of paper the doctor wrote and drew everything on.....darn it!

Anyway the ductal carninoma I have is classified as a T1C N1 M0 (Tumor 1-tumor is 2cm or less C-tumor is more than 1cm and less than 2cm  N-cancer cells in lymph nodes 1 - in < 9 lymphnodes (I think) M -for mastastified or spread to other places 0-mine hasn't.  In addition to this, mine is high grade - which means it is a fast spreading cancer (there are margins for low med and high grade but I don't remember the numbers....mine was well into high grade)

There is basically 3 types of treatment for breast cancer (at least with the UCD system)  

Chemotherapy

Hormonal Therapy 

Biological treatments (Herceptin)

What treatment you get depends on the type of cancer (the link above for Herceptin, will also tell you the 2 types of treatment I can have).  In the cancer cell there are receptors.  If you test positive for "ostrogen receptors" - (which I think the doc said are Estrogen and Progesterone) you can do the hormonal therapy - I am negative for these, so I don't get any Hormonal therapy 

If you test positive for the Her 2 protein you get a biological treatment which in this case is Herceptin - which goes after only cancer cells - I did test positive for this.

So basically, and this is where I might be a little off on the numbers, I was told that with regular breast cancer of my type, if I did no further treatment as of right now there is a 30% reoccurance rate. Because I tested negative for the Ostrogen receptors I get a slightly higher rate of reoccurance and since I tested positive for the Her 2 protein I have a slightly higher rate of reoccurance.  My final percentage of reoccurance was 40%....If I did nothing else.
With treatment and I have some choices as to what that will be the number decreases.  With any of the 3 plans laid out to me the reoccurance rate drops to <20%, it varies somewhat with the frequency, and choice of treatment.  I have a week to stew on all of this, my next appointment in a week is to make the decision as to my path and to open our calendars and "book it"

You have now completed Mary's cancer 101 --- don't worry there's not a test....for you!