[mistiis]

Hi...I have a very good friend who has recently been diagnosed with 'invasive' breast cancer. They are doing the gene test so she can decide whether to have a lumpectomy or mastectomy. If anyone here has any experience with this I would appreciate your sharing so I can pass the information on to her.

She is sooooo very sensitive to medications and anything foreign on her body, such as tape, latex, or anykind of plastic. Needless to say that makes it scarier. She has had more than one anaphalaxtic reaction to narcotics. Any help would be appreciated....Thanks....

[Koala77]

I'm sorry to read about your friend's diagnosis Mistiis. My cousin also has invasive breast cancer and is being treated with a lumpectomy, clearance of the lymph glands in her armpit, radiotherapy and hormone tablets.

Treatment for your friend will depend entirely on what they find when they biopsy the area, but thought it might help you to know a little about the stages of breast cancer.

Invasive breast cancer is early breast cancer, and is labelled invasive because it spreads to the tissue surrounding the breast, rather than being confined to the ducts or lobules where it starts. This is the most common type of breast cancer affecting women over 40 years of age.

Spread to other parts of the body occurs via blood vessels or through the lymphatic system. Lymphatic vessels are connected by lymph glands, and together they make up another of the body's drainage systems.

In cases of early breast cancer, the malignant cells are usually confined to the breast and the armpit area, but if it's already spread to the chest wall, or muscles then the stage of the breast cancer is classified as locally advanced.

Metastatic breast cancer is the name given to the more advanced stage when malignant cells are found in other areas in the body such as the lungs or the bones.

There are breast cancer clinics and many web sites dedicated to breast cancer these days, so I'm sure you and your friend should be able to get lots of information that way. Here are a few Australian ones.

http://www.breasthealth.com.au/whatisbreastcancer/
http://www.nbcc.org.au/
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Breast_Cancer