• Tumour size on a breast report, and why it differs from the scan: The size on the pathology report is the largest continuous lump of invasive cancer measured under the microscope, which is not the same as the size on the mammogram or the MRI.
• Grade, stage and receptor status: three different things on one breast report: A breast report gives three answers to three different questions: the grade says how the cells behave, the stage says how far the cancer has gone, and the receptors say which drugs it will respond to.
• Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI), and PREDICT: One number that puts a breast cancer's size, its node status and its grade together, because the stage on its own leaves grade out.
• Ducts, lobules and the terminal duct lobular unit: The breast is a tree: fifteen to twenty branching duct systems, each ending in a cluster of milk-making sacs called a lobule.
• Nottingham grade (breast cancer grade 1, 2 and 3): The grade on a breast report is a sum of three scores: how much of the tumour still forms tubes, how ugly its nuclei are, and how many cells are caught dividing.
• The WHO classification of breast tumours, and what the 6th edition changed: The book that decides what a breast tumour is called.

Biomarker results to ask for: Oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2, Nottingham grade, Ki-67 and genomic assays (Oncotype DX and others) in early HR-positive disease.

Scans and tests linked to this cancer: Companion diagnostics, RNA sequencing & expression profiling, Gene-expression prognostic assays.

Bring copies of scan reports, pathology and blood results, and a list of every medicine and supplement.

• All stages: Treated as the parent's receptor pages describe. (Breast cancer (all types), HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), Oncotype DX)

From the standard of care recorded for this cancer; which apply depends on your stage and biomarkers. Ask which the team recommends and why.