Sometimes it's good to be wrong

Ok, I made a call to the American Cancer Society to verify some of the conclusions I had drawn.  Even though I did find some information regarding pan cytokeratin (aka pankeratin) and basal cell subtype, this might not necessarily indicate the subtype on this preliminary report, but rather have been used to confirm the adenocarcinoma.  When you get into this level of pathology the unknowns throw you sometimes.  I definitely am hoping to have drawn the wrong conclusion and will know for sure after talking with the Breast Oncologist at MD Anderson on Monday. 

So at this point, let's just stick to what appears to be the known facts that have been proven via biopsy:

• Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) confirmed breast tumor on same breast, opposite side, ductal type carcinoma
• Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) confirmed scalp tumor, adenocarcinoma (no confirmation on type)
• Both biopsies are Grade 3 (agressive) and poorly differentiated

Grey areas:

• Assuming the unknown adenocarcinoma on the scalp is most likely metastasis from the breast tumor.
• Assuming this is a recurrence of the original invasive ductal carcinoma I had in 2009.
• Assuming the ER/PR status is the same on both tumors, but until I see the report, no way to confirm.  Nurse at MD Anderson confirms ER/PR status is positive, but for one or both, she was not sure.
• Local oncologist says it is a recurrence in the breast with scalp metastasis and possible spine (neck area) and liver metastasis (both unconfirmed by show on films)

Guesses from reading pubmed articles, research studies, and other scholarly resource articles, that may or may not factor into the equation:

• Basal like cell carcinomas tend to be positive for pan cytokeratin 
• Basal like cell carincoma subtype may cancel out ER/PR positive benefit
• Spine and liver metastasis indicate poorer prognosis

There... I like being wrong when it's in my favor!  Still not a great prognosis, but definitely looking better than the one I was suspecting.  I did this more for my benefit than for any other reason.  I needed to sort all this out into neat little groups to get it straight my own head. 

The information contained here gets pretty deep into some of the pathology crap I've taken the time to educate myself on in order to better understand what the information from the tests is telling me. Please don't feel bad if you are lost by the jargon.  When I have the information confirmed I'll post it and explain in regular terms what it means.