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Endocrine System Case Study
Joan Barker, age fifty-six years, comes for a routine physical examination. She states that she has been in perfect health and has no complaints. She has a history of asthma but currently requires no medications of any kind. Her physical examination is completely normal, except for a 2-cm firm, nontender, nonmobile mass in the upper outer quadrant of her left breast. She indicates that she does not perform regular breast self-examination and that she did not know the mass was there. She has no family history of breast cancer and has never been pregnant.
Answer the following questions about Ms. Barker's condition:
• What term is used to describe the benign condition that may have caused Ms. Barker's breast mass?
• What is inside the cysts of fibrocystic breast disease?
• Mammography and ultrasonography reveal a solid lesion (not cystic). What is the most common type of breast cancer?
• Biopsy determines that Ms. Barker has invasive carcinoma of the breast. What is the difference between ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma of the breast?
• Ms. Barker's breast cancer has metastasized to her lungs. What is the difference between metastatic lung cancer and primary lung cancer?
| Subject | Nursing | Pages | 3 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Endocrine System Case Study
What term is used to describe the benign condition that may have caused Ms. Barker's breast mass?
Primary Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor of the Breast
What is inside the cysts of fibrocystic breast disease?
The cysts are filled with interstitial fluid and discharges (Lakhani, 2012). The cysts are described as fluid-filled sacs otherwise the disease would be a fibroadenoma in case fibrous tissue is present in the cysts (Lakhani, 2012).
Mammography and ultrasonography reveal a solid lesion (not cystic). What is the most common type of breast cancer?
Invasive ductal carcinoma
IDC makes up 70-80% of all the diagnoses of breast cancers (Lakhani, 2012).
A biopsy determines that Ms. Barker has invasive carcinoma of the breast. What is the difference between ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma of the breast?
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-invasive breast cancer in which abnormal cells develop in the milk ducts (Lakhani, 2012). On the other hand, invasive carcinoma of the breast involves the development of abnormal cells in the breast ducts or glands that grow into breast tissue (Lakhani, 2012). Invasive carcinoma of the breast is life-threatening because it can spread to the nearby axillary lymph nodes and tissues while ductal carcinoma in situ is benign and does not spread to other tissues.
Ms. Barker's breast cancer has metastasized to her lungs. What is the difference between metastatic lung cancer and primary lung cancer?
Primary lung cancer starts and originates in the lungs whereby there is an abnormal and uncontrolled growth of the cells of the lungs (Chaffer & Weinberg, 2011). On the other hand, metastatic lung cancer develops when cancer cells from another site of a primary tumor break from the tumor, get into the bloodstream, and moves to the lungs (Chaffer & Weinberg, 2011). Cancer cells from any primary tumor can spread to the lungs. Therefore, both metastatic lung cancer and primary lung cancer are two different cancers treated differently. In the case of Ms. Barker, the cancerous cells traveled from the breast to the lungs causing lung cancer.
References
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Chaffer, C. L., & Weinberg, R. A. (2011). A perspective on cancer cell metastasis. Science, 331(6024), 1559-1564.
Lakhani, S. R. (Ed.). (2012). WHO classification of tumors of the breast. International Agency for Research on Cancer.
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