What color is your tumor?

If someone had asked a year ago, what color the inside of a tumor was, I would have guessed red and gray. When they did the biopsy, I asked to see the tissue specimens: 5 quarter to half inch strings of vermicelli (Italian for little worms)with little streakings of blood. They didn't look evil to me, just strings of fat. The entire mass was white inside as the pathology reported stated. I had read somewhere that capillary density was roughly proportional to VEGF, a protein that causes the tumor to obtain a blood supply so it can grow (Avastin targets this). The more VEGF ones tumor has, the worse the outcome. I had asked the surgeon later if removal of the tumor was especially bloody (meaning that the tumor managed to conscript lots of blood vessels feeding it) and she said no more than 'usual'. I grasp at any straws that might indicate an increased chance of survival.

VEGF is not the only angiogenesis factor. One can block it and slow the tumor's growth down but eventually it figures out other ways to get a blood supply.

The blood vessels that feed a tumor also can carry tumor cells to other parts of the body. In general, for a given tumor size, TNBC is less likely to be found in the nodes that hormone positive BC. No sigh of relief there though as it is more likely to spread in the blood stream.

Yesterday at the support group someone asked what kind of tumor I had: invasive intraductal carcinoma. Yeah but what kind? That is what kind, the kind that 70% of BC patients have. She had a rare type: papillary which generally has a good prognosis but it had mixed cell types and they were unable to ascertain what those mixed cells were until they could grow and possibly do her damage. Thus she was not a happy camper.

I was sad yesterday between the bad news in the mail and the feeling that maybe I am not out of Cancerland.