| Cancer staging |
| DCIS | Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: Cancer is confined to the milk glands or ducts and has not invaded nearby breast tissue. |
| Stage I: | Tumor under 2 cm and lymph nodes not involved. |
| Stage II | Between stage I and stage III. |
| Stage IIIA | Tumor over 5 centimeters with lymph nodes involved, or lymph nodes adhere to one another or to surrounding tissue. |
| Stage IIIB | Tumor has spread to the skin, chest wall, or internal breast lymph nodes (beneath breast or in chest). |
| Stage IV | Cancer has spread away from breast to bones, lungs, brain, liver or other places. This stage is usually incurable |
| Recurrent breast cancer | Any breast cancer occuring after one breast cancer has already been treated. |
| Metastatic breast cancer | Another name for Stage IV disease. |
| Secondary breast cancer | Another name for Stage IV disease. |
| Common Abbreviations |
| A/C | Chemotherapy: Adriamycin / cyclophosphamide. |
| BC | Breast Cancer |
| CAF | Chemotherapy: cyclophosphamide/ Adriamycin / fluorouracil. |
| CMF | Chemotherapy: cyclophosphamide / methotrexate / fluorouracil. |
| DCIS | Ductal Carcnoma In Situ. An early stage of breast cancer. |
| Dx | Diagnosis |
| ER | Estrogen receptor status of the cancer - positive means Tamoxifen etc may be effective. |
| F/U | Follow-up |
| HER2 | HER2 (Human Epidermial growth factor Receptor) status of the cancer - positive means Herceptin will be effective. |
| Hx | History |
| IBC | Inflammatory breast cancer, an unusual agressive form of cancer. |
| N | In diagnosis eg N1 = lymph nodes involved |
| NED | No Evidence of Disease |
| M | In diagnosis eg M0 = no metastases |
| Mets. | Metastases - secondary tumors in a different part of the body. See Stage IV above. |
| MUGA. | "MUltiple Gated Acquisition scan", a test of heart function using a radioactive tracer |
| PR | Progesterone receptor status of the cancer - positive means Megace etc may be effective. |
| Rx | Prescription |
| T | In diagnosis eg T1 = Stage I, see staging above |