Questions and Answers
What term is used to describe the benign condition that may have caused the mass ?
The term used to describe benign condition that might have caused the lump in this patient is called Benign Breast Disease, of BBD. This is an umbrella term that can be use to describe a wide “spectrum of noncancerous changes in the breast” (McCance & Huether, 2014). The current patient does not have any fluid, or expression from the nipple, does not report pain or itching, and has no family history, so cancer is less likely the cause. As such, it would be considered most likely that the mass is a cyst, created by fibrocystic related changes in the breast. Cysts are both benign and quite common.
What is inside the cysts, when an individual has fibrocystic breast disease is simply fluid (McCance & Huether, 2014). This can be diagnosed, by using a needle to aspirate the mass, and try to draw fluid from it (National Breast Cancer Association, 2016). However, imaging may not work correctly if there are calcifications in the fluid. For example, it may appear suspicious on a mammogram, if there are calcifications within the fluid (McCance & Huether, 2014).
Mammography and ultrasound reveal a solid lesion. What is the most common form of breast cancer?
The most common type of breast cancer, or subtype is luminal breast cancer, across all races and age groups. However, Triple negative breast cancer is highest among black women (McCance & Huether, 2014). More specifically, however, an estimated 80% of all breast cancers are invasive ductal carcinomas. This means that, while the cancer typically begins in the milk ducts, it will, given opportunity, spread to the surrounding breast tissue (Breastcancer.org, 2016). There has, in recent years, been a 290% increase in DCIS in women under 50, nd a 500% increase in those over the age of 50, with 64,640 new cases in 2014 alone (McCance & Huether, 2014). However, this may, in part, be attributed to the fact that a larger number of the cases are being identified via routine mammography.
Biopsy reveals it is invasive carcinoma. What are the difference between ductal and invasive carcinoma.
There are several significant differences between ductal and invasive carcinoma. Ductal carcinoma is limited to the ductal tissue. There are cases in which this ductal cancer will never spread. However, in most cases, given time, the cancer will spread. When the cancer changes from ductal to invasive, changes begin to occur in the microenvironment, including the secretion of chemokines, and accumulation of leukocytes, as the disease prepares to spread. Generally, however moving from normal breast tissue, to Ductal cancer, to invasive cancer is simply a progression in the cells, and their cancer properties (McCance & Huether, 2014).
The cancer has already metastasized to the lungs. What are the difference between metastatic and primary lung cancer?
The difference between metastatic lung cancer and primary lung cancer is its origin. While it is common for breast cancer to metastasize to the lung, however they are two different conditions. Metastatic breast cancer, in the lung has to be treated like breast cancer, because genetically, it originated there. However, primary lung cancer has to be treated as lung cancer, because it originated there. This is because metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread, and primary cancer is cancer at the location of its origin (Vollmer, 2009).
References:
Breastcancer.org (2016). IDC- Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Retrieved from http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types/idc
McCance, K.L. & Huether, S.E. (2013). Pathophysiology: The Biological Basis for Disease in Adults and Children. New York: Elsevier Health Sciences.
National Brest Cancer Foundation. (2016). Breast Cyst. Retrieved from http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/cyst-in-breast
Vollmer, R.T. (2009). Primary lung cancer vs metastatic breast cancer: a probabilistic approach. American Journal of Clinical Pathology 132 (2): 391-395.
