Laura

DCIS = Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (or I think it is) - means ductal cancer that is still inside the actualy milk duct and hasn't invaded any more of the breast yet.

MDT = Multi Disciplinary Team (a team consisting of multiple members, from different fields, such as your medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, breast surgeon, breast care nurse, oncology nurses, community nurses, physiotherapist, dietician, lymphoedema specialists etc etc)

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I am sure you probably know the following but I will put them here anyway ...

ER = Oestrogen Receptor (The E comes from the USA spelling of Estrogen) (this tells weather or not your cancer is "fed" by Oestrogen or not)

+ = positive (such as ER+ = Oestrogen Receptor Positive)

- =  negative (Such as ER- = Oestrogen receptor Negative)

PR = Progesterone Receptor (this tells weather or not your cancer is "fed" by Progesterone or not)

HER2 = Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (this is a gene which promotes the growth of cancer cells when positive mean that this gene doesn't work properly and it makes too many copies of itself, which makes the cancer grow faster)

IBC = Inflammatory Breast Cancer, but I have also seen it used to mean Invasive Breast Cancer

BRCA1/ BRCA2 = Breast Cancersusceptability Gene 1/ 2 (these are 2 genes that if you carry them can increase your risk of getting breast and/or ovarian cancers, if you have one of these genes it also means that any offspring can inherit the faulty gene from you - the risk is something like - the general population have a lifetime risk  of about 12%, people with a faulty gene have a lifelong risk of about 60% for breast cancer and a 1.4% lifetime risk in the general population and a 15 to 40% risk for people with the faulty gene for ovarian cancer) - also known as Familial Breast Cancer in some places.

BSE = Breast Self Examination

US or U/S = Ultrasound

CT or CT Scan = Computer Tomography (A type of medical imaging that uses a computer to organise multiple x-rays and construct a cross section view of the body)

Rad = Raditation, on these sites usually means Radiation Therapy.

PET or PET scan = Positron Emission Tomography (a medical imaging technique that uses radioactive tracers to show upareas of damage or faster growing areas like cancers - used to find metastises in some people)

MRI = Magnetic Resonance Imaging (A medical imaging technique that uses a large magnet linked to a computer to create detailed pictures inside of the body)

Mets = Metastases or secondaries (this means the cancer has spread or metastasised to other barts of the body such as the bones, or organs like lungs, liver brain etc)

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There are HEAPS more too, but I can't think of any more at present. ?

Hope this has been of some help (we need to make a file with all of the definitions, so that we can refer to it when we come across a new one or read one in our biopsy, or pathology reports, or blood test results etc etc.