What does that mean?

The A is Adriamycin, another name for doxorubicin. The C is cyclophosphamide. If someone says you're “doing AC,” they're talking about this combination.

Treatment that comes after the main event—usually surgery—to deal with cancer cells that could remain or lower the chance of the cancer coming back.

You can have a mastectomy and choose not to reconstruct a breast shape. “Going flat” is a real surgical choice—not a failure to finish reconstruction.

The cancer cells have extra copies of a gene. In breast cancer, you may hear this when your team is figuring out HER2 status.

If estrogen helps your cancer grow, this is one way doctors can turn down the body's estrogen supply.

Your armpit. Seriously. That's the fancy word.

Instead of removing only the first few sentinel nodes, the surgeon removes a larger group of lymph nodes from your underarm.

It's a category on your imaging report that helps explain what the radiologist saw and what should happen next.

A clue your doctors can measure. ER, PR and HER2 are examples you'll hear about a lot because they can help shape treatment.

Imaging can show that something looks suspicious. A biopsy gets actual cells or tissue so someone can determine what that thing really is.

Everyone has BRCA genes. The question is whether you inherited a harmful change in one of them that changes your cancer risk.

Dense breasts have more glandular and fibrous tissue relative to fat. Density can make mammograms harder to read and is also one factor considered in breast-cancer risk.

Tiny calcium spots on a mammogram. Seeing them does not automatically mean cancer. The pattern, size and arrangement are part of what the radiologist evaluates.

Cancer-fighting medicine that works throughout the body, rather than treating only the breast or one specific spot.

The very cold cap you've probably heard about. The goal is to help preserve some hair during certain chemotherapy treatments. It doesn't work the same way for everyone or every regimen.

That tight string or cord you can sometimes see or feel in your armpit or arm after breast or lymph-node surgery has a name. Tell your care team; rehabilitation or physical therapy may help.

The abnormal cells are inside a milk duct, but they haven't broken through the duct wall into the surrounding breast tissue.

This isn't the routine screening version. They're taking a closer look at a specific area because there's something they want to understand better.

This is the bright red chemotherapy drug people sometimes call the “Red Devil.” That's a nickname. The actual drug is doxorubicin, also known as Adriamycin.

If hormones such as estrogen are helping the cancer grow, endocrine therapy tries to interrupt that relationship.

They're checking whether estrogen can act like a growth signal for the cancer. If the tumor is ER-positive, treatments that interfere with estrogen may be part of your plan.

If someone says they're doing a “FISH test,” nobody is testing an actual fish. It's a lab test that can help clarify HER2 status by looking at copies of the HER2 gene.

This is the kind of genetic change you can be born with and potentially pass through a family. It is different from a mutation found only in the tumor.

Grade is about what the cancer looks like under the microscope and features related to how it's growing. It is not the same thing as stage.

Your team is measuring a growth-related target on the cancer. That result matters because certain treatments are designed to target HER2.

A special lab stain that helps the pathologist see whether certain proteins are present in the tumor—and sometimes how strongly they're showing up.

This word sounds terrifying. What it tells you is that the cancer has moved into nearby breast tissue. It does not automatically mean the cancer has spread to a distant part of your body.

It started in a milk duct and crossed beyond that duct into nearby breast tissue. Again: “invasive” does not automatically mean distant spread.

This breast cancer is associated with the milk-producing lobules rather than being classified as ductal.

One clue about how many tumor cells appear to be actively dividing. It's a piece of the picture—not a diagnosis by itself.

Despite the alarming name, LCIS behaves differently from invasive breast cancer. It's an important finding because it tells your team something about future breast-cancer risk.

Your team may check the lymph nodes near the breast because they can provide important information about whether cancer cells have moved beyond the original breast tumor.

The pathologist saw cancer cells inside tiny channels that carry lymph or blood. Your team considers this finding alongside the rest of your pathology—not in isolation.

Breast-cancer surgery or radiation can affect lymph drainage. If you notice new or persistent swelling, heaviness or tightness, tell your care team rather than trying to diagnose it yourself.

The breast x-ray where each breast is positioned and compressed so the radiologist can look for changes that may need a closer look.

After tissue is removed, the pathologist checks the outer edges. Your team wants to know whether cancer reaches the edge of what was taken out.

“Mastectomy” is a category, not one single operation. Ask exactly what your surgeon plans to remove, what may be preserved and what your chest is expected to look like afterward.

This means breast-cancer cells are growing somewhere distant from the breast—such as bone, liver, lung or brain. Cancer in nearby breast tissue or regional lymph nodes is not the same thing as distant metastasis.

The pathologist is literally looking for cells caught in the act of dividing. It's one of the features that can contribute to breast tumor grade.

A detailed breast scan made with magnets and radio waves, not x-rays. Whether you need one depends on why your team is imaging you.

They're treating the cancer before operating instead of automatically doing surgery first.

At this moment, the tests being used aren't showing detectable disease. Ask your team what NED means in the context of your specific diagnosis and follow-up plan.

If your fingers or toes start tingling, burning, feeling numb or just feeling wrong during treatment, don't quietly tough it out. Tell your oncology team.

This may be the “white blood cell shot” or “shot after chemo” someone mentioned. It helps your bone marrow make more infection-fighting white blood cells.

The pathologist is looking closely at the control centers of the cells—the nuclei—and judging how different they look from normal.

This is a test on the tumor. It is not the same thing as testing whether you inherited a breast-cancer gene. In eligible cancers, the result can help inform decisions about chemotherapy.

Palliative care is about helping you feel and function as well as possible while dealing with serious illness. It is not synonymous with hospice, and it can be provided alongside cancer treatment.

This is one of the documents where the details of your cancer start coming together. And yes, it often reads like it was written for everyone except you.

A small device under your skin that gives the infusion team reliable access to a vein without starting a new peripheral IV every time. Yes, you can usually see or feel a bump.

Another hormone-receptor result on the pathology report. Your doctors interpret it alongside ER, HER2 and other features of the tumor.

“Cancer came back” can mean different things depending on where it returned. Local, regional and distant recurrence are not interchangeable, so ask exactly what your team means.

A local treatment aimed at a specific part of the body. Unlike chemotherapy and other systemic treatments, it isn't circulating through your whole body.

This is the setup appointment before the actual radiation treatments. Your team is figuring out exactly how you'll be positioned and how to aim treatment accurately.

Think of these as the first lymph-node checkpoint. Surgeons can examine them for cancer rather than automatically removing a larger group of nodes in every situation.

That fluid pocket or sloshy swelling after surgery may be a seroma. Don't decide what it is from the internet—show or describe new postoperative swelling to your surgical team.

A mutation found in the cancer is not automatically something you were born with or something your children can inherit. That's why “genetic” and “genomic” conversations can get confusing.

Stage helps your team describe the overall cancer picture. It is not simply another word for “how aggressive.”

A medication that interferes with estrogen signaling in breast tissue. If your cancer is hormone receptor-positive, you may hear this name early and often.

Instead of describing treatment only by where the cancer is, targeted therapy goes after a particular feature or pathway the cancer depends on.

The “triple” is ER, PR and HER2. Those three common treatment targets aren't positive in TNBC, so your team plans treatment using other features of the cancer and your situation.

Gel, a handheld probe and sound waves. No x-rays. It can help your team look more closely at a specific area.