Breast Cancer Health Article

KEY TERMS

Adjuvant therapy—Treatment involving radiation, chemotherapy (drug treatment), or hormone therapy, or a combination of all three given after the primary treatment for the possibility of residual microscopic disease.

Aneuploid—An abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell.

Aspiration biopsy—The removal of cells in fluid or tissue from a mass or cyst using a needle for microscopic examination and diagnosis.

Benign—Not malignant, noncancerous.

Biopsy—A procedure in which suspicious tissue is removed and examined by a pathologist for cancer or other disease. For breast biopsies, the tissue may be obtained by open surgery, or through a needle.

Estrogen-receptor assay—A test to see if a breast cancer needs estrogen to grow.

Hormones—Chemicals produced by glands in the body which circulate in the blood and control the actions of cells and organs. Estrogens are hormones which affect breast cancer growth.

Hormone therapy—Treating cancers by changing the hormone balance of the body, instead of by using cell-killing drugs.

Lumpectomy—A surgical procedure in which only the cancerous tumor in the breast is removed, together with a rim of normal tissue.

Lymph nodes—Small, bean-shaped masses of tissue scattered along the lymphatic system that act as filters and immune monitors, removing fluids, bacteria, or cancer cells that travel through the lymph system. Breast cancer cells in the lymph nodes under the arm or in the chest are a sign that the cancer has spread, and that it might recur.

Malignant—Cancerous.

Mammography—X-ray imaging of the breast that can often detect lesions in the tissue too small or too deep to be felt.

Oncogene—A gene that has to do with regulation of cancer growth. An abnormality can produce cancer.