Grading
Grading provides a more accurate assessment of the tumor tissue. Here the tumour is divided into a group from G1 to G4. Tumour cells develop from healthy body cells and the more similar they are to these, the less aggressive they usually are.
G1 refers to tumour cells that are still relatively similar to their original cell and are well differentiated. They usually grow quite slowly and do not behave very aggressively. Up to G4, the tissue’s degree of differentiation decreases more and more and thus G4 tumours are almost completely undifferentiated, have almost no similarity to their original tissue and tend to behave very aggressively, including ingrowth into neighbouring tissue.
Hormone sensitive breast cancer
Some types of breast cancer respond to the female hormone estrogen because they have an estrogen receptor. Others have a receptor called HER2. These receptors can be exploited in hormone or antibody therapy to slow down the growth of the tumour. These factors therefore also play an important role in the prognosis, as they have a major influence on the choice of therapy.
Breast cancer in men
Breast cancer in men is very rare, but shall be mentioned here briefly. The prognosis is generally the same as for cancer in women, apart from the fact that a family history of cancer in men is not regarded as significant. In addition, the 5-year survival rate is somewhat lower, but this is due to the fact that men generally only develop the disease at a higher age than women.