Cancer Stories
Search by cancer type, stage, biomarker or treatment to find people who've been exactly where you are.
Discuss
PatientSavvy: Join us
A 54-year-old woman sought care after feeling a lump in her left breast for about a month. Mammogram and ultrasound showed a 2 cm mass, and a core biopsy confirmed a high-grade breast cancer with squamous features. Further pathology supported metaplastic breast carcinoma. The tumor was estrogen-receptor negative, weakly progesterone-receptor positive, and HER2-negative.
She received chemotherapy before surgery, completing 4 cycles followed by 8 additional cycles. Imaging after treatment still showed a smaller mass, suggesting that some tumor might remain.
She then had breast-conserving surgery with lymph-node sampling. When the surgical tissue was examined, no viable invasive or in situ breast cancer was found. The tissue that had looked like residual tumor on imaging was made up of treatment-related keratin debris and scar-like changes rather than living cancer cells. All 3 sentinel lymph nodes were also negative.
The final pathology therefore showed a complete response to treatment.
This is a lay summary of an account first published by PMC / PubMed Central. Read the original in full
How we source and attribute stories Accuracy and limitations
These are lay summaries of published cancer stories, for information only. No two cancers behave the same way, and nothing here predicts your own diagnosis or replaces advice from your oncology team. Read the full disclaimer