Glossary

ABBI: Advanced Breast Biopsy Instrumentation—a device used for large-core (up to 20 mm diameter) biopsy.

Adjuvant therapy: use of anti-cancer drugs—chemotherapy or hormones—in addition to surgery, to delay or prevent a recurrence.

Aspiration biopsy: suction of cells in fluid from a cyst or from a solid mass through a fine needle for microscopic examination and diagnosis.

Axilla: the armpit; axillary, the adjective, as in the axillary lymph nodes.

Biopsy: removal of material for micro-scopic diagnosis. Can be aspiration by a needle to remove cells, can be removal of a tissue sample by a "core" needle, or surgical removal of part or all of the lesion. see also ‘Localisation biopsy’, ‘ABBI’.

Breast cancer: cancer is a general term for disease characterised by abnormal and uncontrolled division of cells. Cancer cells can invade and destroy surrounding normal tissue, and spread within the body by blood or body fluids to start secondary tumours in other parts of the body. (These are called "metastases"). Cancer in the breast begins in the lining of lobules or ducts.

Breast conservation: the treatment of breast cancer by tumour excision and radiotherapy in which the breast is retained (conserved) in contrast to its removal (mastectomy). Rarely, radiation therapy is omitted.

Carcinoma: see ‘Breast cancer’

Carcinoma in situ: cancer that has not spread from its place of origin in a breast
lobule (Lobular carcinoma in situ; LCIS) or duct (Ductal carcinoma is situ; DCIS).

Chemotherapy (cytotoxic therapy): a treatment for cancer using drugs, usually given by injection into a vein.

Clinical trials: scientific studies comparing two or more treatments.

Conservation treatment: see ‘Breast conservation’.

Dissection: a careful operation which removes some structures but preserves others, e.g. in breast cancer, removal of the axillary lymph nodes is termed axillary dissection.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS): see ‘Carcinoma in situ’.

Ducts: channels within the breast that pass milk from the lobules, where it is made, to the nipple.

Endocrine therapy (hormone therapy): treating breast cancer by changing the hormonal balance of the body.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNA): see ‘Aspiration biopsy’.

Grade: a pathological term that describes the degree of variation from normal by a breast cancer. Usually, grades are 1, 2, 3. The grade can have an influence on prognosis.

Hormones: chemicals produced by glands in the body that circulate in the blood stream and control actions of cells and organs. Oestrogen and progesterone are examples.

Invasive cancer: cancer that has spread from its place of origin in the breast lobules or ducts.

Lesion: a definite abnormality either seen on mammography or ultrasound. It may or may not be felt.

Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS): see ‘Carcinoma in situ’.

Lobule: a part of a breast lobe (a woman’s breast has 15 to 20 lobes where milk is produced).

Localisation biopsy: Using mammography or ultrasound, and local anaesthetic to numb the area, a wire is guided to the lesion. The lesion usually cannot be felt and has been seen on a previous imaging. This area can then be removed for microscopic diagnosis.

Lumpectomy: a surgical procedure to remove a lump in the breast with a margin of normal tissue. see ‘Wide local excision’, ‘Breast conservation’.

Lymph nodes: bean-shaped structures scattered along vessels of the lymphatic system. The nodes act as filters, trapping bacteria or cancer cells that may have entered the lymph system. The number of lymph nodes varies from patient to patient.

Lymphoedema: acute or chronic swelling of the arm, breast or chest that may be prominent in up to 30% of patients after treatment of the axilla by surgery and, or, radiotherapy.

Malignant: a growth of cells that have the ability to invade and destroy body tissues.

Mammography (mammogram): X-ray imaging of the breast which can show lesions in the breast too small or too deep to be felt by you or your doctor.

Metastasis: the spread of cancer from the primary tumour to another part of the body (secondary tumours).

Modified radical mastectomy: a surgical procedure in which the breast and the lymph nodes in the armpit are removed. (Muscles of the chest wall are not removed, see ‘Radical mastectomy’.)

Oestrogen: a female hormone, produced by the ovaries, adrenal glands and in fat. A relationship exists between oestrogen and breast cancer.

Oncology: the study of cancer. An "oncologist" is a clinician who specialises in cancer treatment. A "surgical" oncologist is a specialist in treating cancer by surgery; a "medical" oncologist treats cancer using chemotherapy or endocrine therapy; a "radiation" oncologist treats cancer with high-dose X-rays and radioactive isotopes.

Partial or segmental mastectomy: a surgical procedure in which only a portion of the breast is removed. see ‘Lumpectomy’, ‘Wide local excision’.

Pathologist: a doctor who identifies or diagnoses diseases such as breast cancer by examining cells and their surrounding tissue under a microscope.

Pathology report: a description of the micro- and macroscopic observations made by a pathologist. For a breast cancer, the report includes the grade, stage and other features of the tumour.

Plastic surgeon: a doctor who specialises in rehabilitative surgery—including breast reconstruction.

Progesterone: a female hormone, produced by the ovaries only during a specific time of a woman’s menstrual cycle.

Prognosis: an estimate of the likely cure rate of a particular condition.

Prosthesis: an artificial part designed and fitted to overcome a defect in the body. A breast prosthesis is synthetic material to give the contour and density of the breast.

Quadrantectomy: removal of a sector of the breast. see ‘Wide local excision’.

Radiation therapy: uses high energy X-rays to kill any cancer cells left behind (adjuvant radiotherapy) after surgery. It can treat cancer without the routine use of surgery (definitive radiotherapy).

Radical (Halsted or standard) mastectomy: an obsolete surgical procedure in which the entire breast, the chest muscles underneath and the lymph nodes in the axilla were removed.

Radiologist: a doctor who specialises in identifying abnormalities and diseases, including breast cancer, using X-rays.

Reconstruction (Reconstructive surgery): a surgical procedure that rebuilds the breast contour and, if desired, the areola and nipple. It designed to correct defects left by surgery.

Recurrence: return of cancer growth either at the original site (a "local" recurrence) or as metastases (‘secondaries’) in other parts of the body.

Scan: the imaging of an organ or part of the body using tracer amounts of radioactive chemicals e.g. bone scan, ultrasound or liver scan (nuclear scan). A CT scan (or CAT scan) uses X-rays and a computer to construct an image of anatomical features registered by axial tomography. An MRI scan is an image of the magnetic forces in the body.

Secondary tumour: a cancer that has left its primary site and is deposited elsewhere in the body (e.g. lung, bone, brain). see ‘Metastasis’.

Segmental resection (local excision, wide local excision, lumpectomy): surgical removal of a cancer along with some surrounding normal tissue.

Sentinel node biopsy: removal of the first few lymph nodes in the armpit (axilla) that are most closely related to the breast cancer.

Staging: classification of the primary tumour (T), lymph node involvement (N), combined with tests to see if the cancer has metastasised (M).

Total (or simple) mastectomy: a surgical procedure involving complete removal of the breast but not the axillary lymph nodes or chest muscles.

Tumour: abnormal growth of tissue.

Ultrasonography (ultrasound): a technique using high-frequency sound waves for imaging the contents of the breast or other parts of the body. Echoes are converted to photo images that can be seen on a TV monitor or film as a "sonogram".

Wide local excision: this is a more appropriate term for the removal of breast cancer with a surrounding rim of normal tissue (see ‘Lumpectomy’). Other terms, complete local excision (CLE), quadrantectomy, partial mastectomy, essentially refer to the same procedure.

X-rays: low-energy radiation that is used to detect abnormalities and cancer (e.g. mammography); in radiation therapy, high-energy radiation destroys cancer cells.

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