Pathology report for mammary tumor.

Dr. Marie replied:

Sorry to hear that Shelby is having these problems. I'll see if I can interpret the pathology report for you.

Neoplastic cells are cancerous cells. Anisocytosis and Anisokaryosis are ways of describing the DNA inside of the cells. Generally, if there is a lot of this then it is a sign of an aggressive cancer. The pathologist is saying there is only mild anisocytosis and anisokaryosis so this is mixed news. It's not good that these features are present, but I'd rather have mild amounts than marked amounts.

Eosinophils are a type of blood cell that is sometimes present because of allergy, parasites or a type of cancer called mast cell cancer. However, if this was mast cell cancer the pathologist would have easily been able to recognize this. I am guessing that allergy is more likely in the sense that the mass is irritating to Shelby.

I have to say that I have never heard the term "flame figures". I'm not sure what to make of the hyper eosinophilc fibers. This is something you'll need to get the oncologist's opinion on.

However, I am concerned by the fact that the "neoplastic cells extend to multiple deep margins". What this means is that cancer cells can be seen all the way to the edge of the tumor. When we see this there is a high chance that not all of the cancer was removed during surgery. This is usually not the fault of the surgeon as often what happens is that there are tiny microscopic fingers of tumor cells that can extend very far. There is no way to know this as they can't be seen with the human eye.

The oncologist will give you several options. They will likely have more information from the report on the type of cancer that this is and what the expected outcome is. Many mammary cancers can spread to other parts of the body such as the lungs. The oncologist may recommend some other tests be done such as chest xrays (if they have not been done already). It's possible that further surgery can be done to remove more cancer. Or it's possible that they may want to monitor things for now.

I hope this is not too shocking news. Please let me know if you have questions.

Dr. Marie.


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