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Breast Cancer Types: An Overview

When determining what type of breast cancer you have, a doctor performs a biopsy to look at breast tissue under a microscope. This allows the doctor to look at the breast tissue cells for breast cancer and, if found, the type of cancer present.

 

Breast cancer types can be invasive (moves into the surrounding tissue) or non-invasive (stays in the ducts or lobes). Healthcare providers will often use the term "infiltrating" instead of invasive. Some types can also be named based on where the cancer begins. For example, ductal carcinoma begins in the lining of the milk ducts while another type, lobular carcinoma, begins in the lobules where breast milk is produced.

 

Invasive Breast Cancer

Invasive breast cancers make up 70 to 80 percent of all breast cancer cases. The most common type of invasive breast cancer is infiltrating ductal carcinoma (also called invasive ductal carcinoma). This type is found in approximately 60 percent of breast cancer cases. The second most common type of breast cancer is infiltrating lobular carcinoma (also called invasive lobular carcinoma), found in approximately 6 percent of breast cancer cases.

 

Other, less common, invasive types of breast cancer include:

 

Non-Invasive Breast Cancer

Non-invasive breast cancer types have not moved into the surrounding breast tissue. Therefore, the prognosis is good for these types of cancer.

 

Common non-invasive types of breast cancer include: